!!! Press Release !!!

American high-tech company TECSTAR, L.A., has posted a new milestone for efficiency of its solar cells, with the cascade cell achieving a record 26.1 per cent. As recently as August 1998, TECSTAR succeeded in boosting the efficiency of its cascade cells to 25.8 per cent. Currently, average efficiency - the conversion rate of incoming solar energy (light) to electrical energy produced for a given surface area - of various commercially deployed systems stands at between 22 and 24 per cent. Installed compound semiconductors play a decisive role in providing such superior performance, along with the "CASCADE" cell design which they facilitate. TECSTAR's CASCADE allows access to a much broader part of the sunlight spectrum. The system comprises cells stacked one on top of the other, with the topmost cells chiefly converting shortwave light into electricity, while allowing longwave light through. The lower cells then convert this longwave light into electricity.

Solar cells comprising compound semiconductors are indeed more expensive than regular silicon-based ones. However, for aerospace applications, for example, in communications satellites, premium is placed on productive efficiency rather than on price. The higher the efficiency, the smaller requisite size of the solar panels on which the solar cells are installed. Smaller solar panels, in their turn, reduce the launch weight of the satellite and hence the cost of putting it into orbit. In addition, smaller solar panels markedly cut down the abrasive risk from particles flying through space, giving the satellite longer life and postponing replacement expenditure. Further, compound semiconductor solar cells are very resistant to cosmic radiation, in contrast to regular silicon-based solar cells. Cell performance at the end of their useful lives is 10 per cent higher than for their silicon-based counterparts.

TECSTAR uses MOCVD equipment supplied by AIXTRON AG to manufacture is compound semiconductors. The Aachen-based company - the global market- and technological-leader in key technology for the production of compound semiconductors - produces the world's largest machines for this application. With its patent-protected technology, AIXTRON equipment possesses important advantages over the competition, both in terms of quality of production and of operating costs. AIXTRON equipment employs precursors - metal-organic compounds of the highest purity - up to between three and four times more economically. In addition, AIXTRON's AIX 3000 equipment, used for the manufacture of solar cells, has around three times the capacity of competitive equipment.

TECSTAR has so far participated in numerous satellite projects, equipping more than 400 birds with solar cells. From Vanguard, the first satellite project of the 1950s, which was the first of TECSTAR's projects, to GPS, Iridium, Landsat, Orbcom and the Mars Pathfinder. TECSTAR currently possesses the world's largest capacity for the production of compound semiconductor solar cells. Experts fully expect that TECSTAR will supply solar cells for future satellite projects. They will include, for example, the Teledesic venture, where estimates for the requisite number of satellites lie between 200 and 800. AIXTRON will also participate decisively in the future successful deployment of solar cells for aerospace applications.

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© AIXTRON AG October 1998

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