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RDC converter

This tool is intended to compute omnidirectional relative damage coefficients (= D(E,t)) for a cell covered with a glass layer of thickness t, starting from the unidirectional values for uncovered cells (= D(E0,0)). The applied method is the JPL procedure (Tada et al.,1982; Anspaugh, 1996).

The input parameters and options for the tool are described below. When the input form has been completed, pressing the button will start the calculation and bring up the "Results" page.

Input parameters

Three types of coverglass are considered: SiO2 (ρ=2.32 g/cm3), CMG (ρ=2.55 g/cm3) and borosilicate glass O-60/Si-26/B-9/Na-3/Al-1 (ρ=2.58 g/cm3). The electron and proton range data are resp. obtained from ESTAR and SRIM2008 for SiO2 and borosilicate glass. For CMG we used the tables from the GaAs Solar Cell Radiation Handbook (Anspaugh, 1996).

The cell thickness is defined in figure 1. It has been shown that for cell thicknesses ranging from 0.0457 cm to 0.005 cm the evaluation of the RDCs slightly depends on the cell thickness and that for practical purposes the results can be considered independent of the cell thickness. Therefore the default value is 0.0 (μm).

The proton-electron conversion factors are used to transform the 10 MeV proton fluence to equivalent 1 MeV electron fluence. The default values are those for a GaAs solar cell.

For the electron RDC data the user should provide a 2-column table (max. 100x2). For the protons a 4-column table is required (max. 100x4). The tool can be run for only electrons or only protons by providing only 1 table.

Cell thickness
Figure 1. Geometries used in omnidirectional proton damage coefficient calculation (CVR = coverglass)
(from Anspaugh, 1996)

Upload RDC data

Tables with measured unidirectional RDCs are available for the following solar cell types: They can be loaded directly into the RDC converter tool, to compute the corresponding omnidirectional values for a fixed set coverglass thicknesses (in mils): 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, 20, 30, 60.

Results

The RDC converter tool produces the files listed in the table below. A description of the file formats can be brought up by clicking on their description in the table.

The report file spenvis_rcp.html contains the input parameters.

The output file spenvis_rco.txt contains the omnidirectional RDCs as function of energy and for several cover glass thicknesses. The data are used by EQFLUX to compute solar damage equivalent fluences.

Output files generated by the rdc converter tool
File name Description
spenvis_rcp.html Report file
spenvis_rco.txt Omnidirectional RDCs for several cover glass thicknesses

To generate plots, select the plot type(s), options and graphics format, and click the button. The current page will be updated with the newly generated plot files.

Last update: Mon, 12 Mar 2018