Lewis Fraas
Dr. Fraas has been active in the development of Solar Cells and Solar Electric Power Systems for space and terrestrial applications since 1975. In 1978, he published a pioneering paper proposing the InGaP/GaInAs/Ge triple junction solar cell predicting a cell terrestrial conversion efficiency of 40% at 300 suns concentration. He then led the research team at Boeing that demonstrated the first over 30% GaAs/GaSb tandem concentrator solar cell in 1989. He joined JX Crystals in 1993, where he has pioneered the development of various thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems based on the GaSb infrared PV cell. Dr Fraas holds degrees from Caltech, Harvard, and USC. He has written over 350 technical papers, over 60 patents, and two books. His most recent book is a Springer 2014 book entitled Low Cost Solar Electric Power.
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Papers by Lewis Fraas
TPV is ideal for small and large scale Combined Heat & Power and it uses natural gas
TPV is lightweight and can be used as a battery replacement or in UAVs
TPV can be used in steel mills to convert waste heat into electricity 24 hrs per day 7 days a week and this is a huge market
JX Crystals IR cells in quantity are key to a large number of new applications
Lewis M. Fraas & Han Xiang Huang
JX Crystals Inc, Issaquah, WA
TPV-8, Palm Desert, CA
November 2008
IR Power Beaming is an application where the system development is straight forward. Eye-safe IR lasers are already available. GaSb PV cells are ideal for low cost IR power conversion at power densities as high as 10 W/cm2 and at costs as low as 50 cents per W. However, cost is controlled by production volume with high volume required (>5000 wafers per year). Material costs are not important until production volumes approach 10 MW per year.
L Fraas1, J Avery1, L Minkin1, H She1, L Ferguson2
1 JX Crystals Inc, Issaquah, WA, USA
2 C12 Advanced Technologies LLC, Everett, WA, USA
PVSEC-26 Singapore Oct 2016
Both solar cells and batteries generate quiet DC electric power and solar cells are light weight but conventional solar cells only operate when the sun is shining. However, JX Crystals Inc (JXC) has invented and fabricates infrared (IR) sensitive solar cells that can convert energy from a combustion heated glowing ceramic IR emitter into electricity. The result is a lightweight thermophotovoltaic (TPV) battery replacement that operates day and night.
We present here the design and operation of a first stand alone TPV generator complete with a photovoltaic converter array and a burner / emitter recuperator assembly and support components. The package dimensions are: L = 300 mm (12”), H = 131 mm (5.2”), W = 96 mm (3.8”). Its target performance is 25 W with a fuel burn rate of 500 W for an efficiency of 5%. This unit is designed to operate with 465g propane or propane/butane fuel cylinders.
[1] J. Mankins, The Case for Space Solar Power, Virginia Edition Publishing; First Edition (January 5, 2014), Amazon Digital Services, ASIN: B00HNZ0Z96
[2] L. Fraas, Low Cost Solar Electric Power Chapter 12, Springer (2014).
[3] ISS sightings over your city | Spot The Station | NASA