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35

DEVELOPMENT OF A MOEMS SUN SENSOR

FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS

Tobias Bohnke', Lars Stenmark','

'Angstrom Space Technology Centre (ASTC), Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden
>ACR,Sweden
e-mail: tobias,bohnke@angstrom.uu.se

ABSTRACT
This contribution presents the development of a
miniaturized sun sensor for sun angle detection in space
applications. The sun sensor has a field of view (FoV)
of greater than 2n: sr and a resolution of approximately 1
degree in elevation and azimuth angle; thus, it i s a
coarse sun sensor with the advantage of having a large
field of view. Key elements of this sun sensor are its
curved shape, the photosensitive layer consisting of
copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), the
transparent conductive layer consisting o f thin
molybdenum or aluminum doped zinc oxide, and its
intcgrated design. The sun sensor will be one of the
sensors in the attitude determination and control system
(ADCS) of a nano-satellite.
Keywords: Sun sensor, position sensitive detector,
transparent conductive layer, satellite, sun angle
the sun after the satellite is launched, injected into its
orbit, and detumbled.
Nano-satellites are satellites classified as having a
mass of less than 10 kg. Conventional sun sensors have
masses of at least several hundred grams or even more
than one kilogram. Thus a conventional sun sensor
would be too large and add too much mass to the
restricted mass budget of a nano-satellite.
TOP-DOWN SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The model o f the nano-satellite, where the sun sensor
will be mounted on, is shown in Figure I . The sun
sensor module is the center module of the nine modules
on the main satellite body (to the left in Figure I ) .

INTRODUCTION

There has been a noticeable increase in research and

development of MEMS and other miniaturization
techniques in the space community rl-31 as there are
great advantages in reducing mass and dimensions in
space technology. These miniaturized space systems can
also be referred to as Space-MEMS. One quite obvious
advantage of reduced mass and dimension of space
technology are lower launch costs. Other advantages
might be higher reliability by for example a higher
degree of integration and simpler interfaces.

One subsystem on a satellite is the so-called attitude

determination and control system. In simple terms the
task of this subsystem is to determine and then to adjust
the attitude of the spacecraft, that mcans its location and
orientation in space. This system embodies sensors like
inertial sensors (gyroscopes, accelerometers), GPS
receivers, star trackers and also sun sensors to determine
its attitude on the one hand. On the other hand the
ADCS has to readjust its location and orientation by
actuators, e.g. some kind of thrusters. The sun sensor
prescnted here is one effort to reduce mass and
dimensions for this type of space component. More
specifically this sun sensor will be the acquisition phase
sun sensor of a nano-satellite. Acquisition phase sun
sensors have the main task to find a fast orientation to
Figure 1. Model of the Nano-satellite (scale I:1)
One sun sensor is mounted on either side of the
satellite. As each sun sensor has a field of view of 271 sr
(+/- 90°),i.e. half the hemisphere, the two sun sensors
together cover the whoIe hemisphere for the satellite.
That means that the sun angle can be detected at all
times, i.e. at all satellite attitudes, which is very
important. Unless the sunlight is obstructed by some
kind of object, as for example the earth or parts of the
satellite, the onboard data handling system (OBDH) is

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always aware o f the sun angle and can for example
direct the solar panels perpendicular to the sun for
maximum power collection in case of power shortage or
get a fast orientation in case of a satellite emergency.
Figure 2 shows a 3D-CAD drawing of the sun sensor
module. The detector element is mounted on the sun
sensor mounting structure with a detector element
mounting ring. The entire sun sensor module weighs
less than 30 grams and has a side length of 70 mm. This
module is one standard module of the nano-satellite
shown in Figure 1 and can house additional components
or electronics in multi-chip-modules (MCM).
betertor element mwnting ring Detector element
Sun sensor mounting structure
Figure 2,3D-CAD drawing of the sun sensor module.
The detector element, shown in a cross section in
Figure 3, weighs less than 1 gram and consists of a I
mm thick glass dome cap, the active layers, and a wafer
with evaluation electronics.
, deposited by co-evaporation of the different materials at
qil- Wofv with JLC~&LI
Thmgh mfrrumtact
Figure 3. Cross section of the sun sensor detector
element (the dimensions of the layers are not to scale).
On the inside there is a photosensitive layer composed
of copper indium gallium diselenide (Cu[In,Ga]Se2 or
abbreviated with the acronym CIGS), which is used in
thin film solar cell technology and has remarkable
radiation hardness [4,5]. Because of the latter this solar
cell material recently has become interesting for space
applications. The material actually consists of two
different semiconductors namely CIS (copper indium
selenide) with a band-gap of 1.04 eV and CGS (copper
gallium selenide) with a band-gap of 1.68 eV. When the
sun is incident on the detector element, a photocurrent is
generated and distributed between different electrodes.
This distribution of the photocurrent to the electrodes
changes in relation to the angle of incidence of the
sunlight. From this distribution the sun angle is
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determined. The curved shape of the glass is necessary
to obtain a different illumination of the photosensitive
layer and thus a different distribution of the
photocurrent for different sun angles. The principle is
similar to a non-segmented position sensitive detector
(PSD) with the difference that the photosensitive layer
is non-planar in this case. This adds considerable
difficulties in processing the thin films and evaluating
the signal from the detector element. The number of
electrodes has to be at least three, but also electrode
configurations with more than three electrodes are
considered. As a summary the different properties of the
sun sensor are displayed synoptically in Table 1.
Table 1. Summary of sun sensor properties
Value 7
1 _ _of detector
_ Mass ~ - ~
structure
element
1i
_ < 1 gram
_ _ _- _ _________-.
Mass of sun sensor rnodule
3o grams
---
i
Field of View (FoV) 2 2~ sr (+I- 90")
- -I
I--- Accuracy 1)r-- 1" j
azimuth angle (360°),
output
elevation angle (90")
Power consumption
(gproximate value)
Photosensitive thin jZtn design and process
On the glass substrate a thin molybdenum layer with a
thickness of only a few nm is deposited by dc sputtering
from a molybdenum sputter target. The photosensitive
CIGS layer with a layer thickness of about 2pm is
elevated temperatures. The cadmium sulfide (CdS) with
a thickness of 50nm is deposited by chemical bath
deposition (CBD). The zinc oxide (ZnO) and the
aluminum-doped zinc oxide (A1:ZnO) are sputter
deposited with thicknesses of 50 and 300 nm
respectively. The insulating layer can for example
consist of thick, highly resistive zinc oxide. The CIGS is
the actual photosensitive layer, where the light is
absorbed. CIGS is inherently p-doped while the
cadmium sulfide is inherently n-doped so the p-n
junction is located between the CIGS and the cadmium
sulfide. The intrinsic zinc oxide serves as an additional
buffer layer to prevent diffusing copper from the CIGS
layer to create a shunt between back and front contact.
The cadmium sulfide also serves as a buffer layer for
the subsequent sputter deposited zinc oxide 161. The
sputtered aluminum doped zinc oxide layer serves as a
conductive, but still quite resistive layer to obtain a
lateral resistance over the layer and thereby a
characteristic distribution of the photocurrent to the

electrodcs dependent on the illumination of the detector
element. A closer look upon the layer sequence is
depicted in Figure 4. Here the layer configuration of the
sun sensor in cross section in Figure 3 is shown (without
the insulating layer and only one electrode).
Incident Light
61ass Substrate/Superstrate
Thin Molybdenum
CTtS
CdS
ZnO
Al:ZnO
Au Cantoct Electrodes
Figure 4. Layer sequence on the inside under the
detector glass dome superstrate (the dimensions of the
layers are not to scale).
Different layer sequence configurations are possible.
A different layer configuration is shown in Figure 5.
This is a so-called superstrate-type configuration.
Incident Light
CIGS
Au Contact Efectrodes
Figure 5. Layer sequence in superstrate configuration
(the dimensions of the layers are not to scale).
The problem with this layer configuration is that the
CIGS is subsequently deposited to the aluminum-doped
zinc oxide and the intrinsic zinc oxide. As this has to be
done at elevated temperatures (app. 5OO0C), the layer
underneath has to withstand this process. For this reason
the cadmium sulfide is lefi out at this layer
configuration. This kind of solar cell has been produced,
but with relatively low efficiencies [7], which would not
be a problem for the sun sensor as conversion efficiency
of the sunIight is not a primary target in this case. The
molybdenum has to be the transparent layer and
therefore very thin, if the layer configuration of Figure 4
is used for the sun sensor, but still thick enough to act as
an clectrical contact, On the other hand, if the layer
configuration in Figure 5 is used for the sun sensor, the
aluminum-doped zinc oxide has to be transparent
enough, but also withstand the process conditions of the
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591
2E4.35
subsequent CIGS deposition and after the processing be
able to fulfill its task as being the layer that can produce
a characteristic distribution of the photocurrent to the
different electrodes.
EXPERIMENTAL
As a preliminary experiment a planar modified CIGS
solar cell was fabricated with four different electrodes.
This device had an active area with a 30 mm diameter,
one center electrode, and three edge electrodes. The
distribution of the photocurrent to the electrodes has
been measured by directing a laser light spot on 27
different points on a detector and then measuring the
share of the photocurrent to each electrode. The
distribution of the photocurrent has also been simulated
with finite element methods using Femlab.
Special attention is focused on the transparent
conductive layers. These have to be conductive but at
the same time transparent to allow the sunlight to enter
the photosensitive layer. Layers with aluminum-doped
zinc oxide have been produced by rf sputtering from an
aluminum (A120,) pre-doped sputter target. The films
were deposited at a power of 400 W, at 1 mTorr argon
pressure and with an argon flow of 10 sccm. The sheet
resistance both in a cross section and in two dimensions
over the area of the layer has been measured. The
transmission and reflection in relation to the wavelength
was measured with a Perkin-Elmer Lambda 9
spectrophotometer.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The measurements and the simulation with Femlab on
a planar device coincide very well considering the
measurement accuracy. Measurement and simulation
deviate not at all or with only a few percent when the
laser light spot illuminates the device in the vicinity of
an electrode. At illumination on the opposite side of the
device from an elcctrode, measurement and simulation
deviate with up to ten percent at some points. Also the
curves for the percentage of photocurrent share show a
higher gradient and therefore stronger sensitivity for
light spot changes for electrodes in the vicinity of the
main light spot. That means that rather electrodes with a
higher share of the photocurrent should be weighted
higher in the determination of the position of the light.
The sheet resistances of the aluminum-doped layers
are shown for two different samples in Figure 6. The
sheet resistance varies over the area probably because of
the different plasma conditions over the area. Under the
circular electron racetrack of the magnetron sputter
target the sheet resistance is much higher than directly
under the center of the sputter target. The reason that
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the minimum of the sheet resistance is not at the
geometrical center of the sample substrate is due to the
fact that the sampke substrates were not placed directly
under the center of the sputter target. Both samples
show rotational symmetric values for the sheet
resistance in a measurement in two dimensions over the
area of the film. Sample A showed very constant sheet
*
resistances of 8.7 0.1 flio in a range of over 10 mm.
Also sample B with 8 R/o 5% in a range of over 15
mm is considered to be fairly constant. A constant sheet
resistance o r , at least a rotational symmetric sheet
resistance is important for the sun sensor.
7.0 t -5 0 5 10 15
Disrancc iiim in mn
Figure 6. Sheet resistance of the two aluminum doped
zinc oxide samples.
The transmittance and reflectance measurements for
the two samples are presented for the range from 250 to
1250 nm in Figure 7.
Wavclcngth in nm
Figure 7. Reflectance and Transmittance of the two
aluminum-doped zinc oxide samples.
The aluminum-doped zinc oxide films show high
transmittance (partially over 80 percent) for photon
energies above the band-gaps of CIS (1.04 eV) and CGS
(1.68 eV), which is h l l y sufficient for the sun sensor.
At wavelengths less than about 400 to 350 nm the
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592
aluminum-doped zinc oxide films progressively absorb
light.
CONCLUSIONS
The design in a top-down description of a micro-
machined sun sensor for sun angle detection on a nano-
satellite has been explained. Different possible layer
sequences and constellations of the photosensitive layer
stack for the detection of the distribution of the
photocurrent in relation to the sun angle have been
described. Advantages and disadvantages of different
layer stacks as well as the different processing, which
different layer constellation and the non-planar substrate
implicate, are described and discussed. Special attention
is focused on the actual photosensitive layer, but also
the transparent conductive layer, consisting of either
thin molybdenum or aluminum doped zinc oxide. The
aluminum-doped zinc oxide layers are about 300 nm
thick and show sheet resistances between about 7 and
10 Rio. The films show very constant sheet resistances
(within a few percent) for those regions (with a diameter
of approximately 15 mm) that are located directly under
the center of the sputter-target.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the ClGS thin film solar
cell group o f the Angstrom Solar Center (ASC) at the
Angstrom Laboratory at Uppsala University (Sweden)
for support, contributing with ideas, and help with
sample preparation.
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