Evaluation of Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) Devices in Different Irradiation Environments

Author(s):

Naresh Das, Harry Hier, William Allmon, and Sunny Karnani

Abstract:

Thermophotovoltaic (TPV) devices are the heart of portable solid-state power generation systems. We report here on the key performance metrics of thin-film indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs)-based (0.74-eV bandgap) TPV devices in both simulated solar and thermal irradiation environments. From our experiments of varying TPV device temperature, we determine the power degradation versus the device temperature for use in system design tradeoff studies with cooling power. Also, we provide power degradation for simulated solar irradiation and 1000, 1100, and 1200 °C thermal irradiation spectra. Notably, the increase in short-circuit current is higher for thermal irradiation than photovoltaic irradiation, reducing the impact of device temperatures for TPV uses and demonstrating the importance of using relevant irradiation environments to assess the TPV device performance.