REAL TIME COHERENT PROCESSOR FOR THE KWAJALEIN FPW

Since 1986, ENTECH, NASA, and SDIO have pioneered the development of refractive space photovoltaic concentrator systems. We have developed functionally system hardware, including lenses, prismatic cell covers, single- and tandem-junction cells, and small arrays. This hardware has verified world-record performance levels for lenses, cells, and arrays. The present optical element is a small, dome-shaped, point-focus Fresnel lens. This "mini-dome" lens offers outstanding performance, but is relatively expensive to make and needs full two-axis sun-tracking. However, by replacing the mini-dome lens with an innovative line-focus lens, a more-manufacturable, lower-cost, simpler-tracking array can be realized. The Phase 1 objective is to design, build, and test prototype line-focus Fresnel lenses. Compared to presently used one-sun silicon cell arrays, the new line-focus concentrator array will offer twice the areal power (W/sq.m.), twice the specific power (W/kg), and lower cost.