Company
World's leading supplier of multijunction
solar cells and high-intensity searchlight systems
Company
Have a question about our products, or want to collaborate on your project?
About Spectrolab
Spectrolab, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company, is the world's leading merchant supplier of the highest-efficiency space solar cells, CICs and panels available to prime satellite contractors and manufacturers around the world.
In addition to space systems, Spectrolab's high intensity airborne searchlight systems support more than 90% of the world's market, and the company's solar simulators are the industry standard.
Spectrolab's state-of-the-art space solar cells and panels power satellites in Earth's orbit, as well as the International Space Station. Since its founding in 1956, Spectrolab has led the way in the development of high-efficiency solar cells for space missions. Spectrolab has demonstrated its enduring technological leadership by being the first company to place cells on the moon (Apollo 1969), on the surface of Mars (Rover 2004), and orbit Jupiter (Juno 2016).
Miquelle Milavec
President and CEO of Spectrolab, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Boeing Company
Company History
Today
A Powerful Measure of Confidence
Spectrolab has built and delivered more than 6.5 million multijunction space solar cells. Spectrolab's legacy has produced over 4 megawatts of space grade solar cells launched to date, powering satellites and spacecraft internationally. Spectrolab's most powerful cells built-to-date – the XTJ Supercell – attained mission operations in both LEO and GEO orbits in the 1st quarter of 2017. These solar cells typically feature >3W per cell – providing customers a vastly improved value proposition. To date, over 300kW of Supercell products have been launched.
Spectrolab serves customers around the world with its Nightsun® series searchlights. Its customers include law enforcement agencies around the world, the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the British Ministry of Defense, which uses the Nightsun® product exclusively
Spectrolab's solar cells and panels power satellites in Earth's orbit, as well as the International Space Station. Note: The International Space Station's solar panels are equipped with 275,000 silicon cells. The solar panels are also the largest power generating panels ever deployed in space with a total power output of 200kW. Twenty-five years after the ISS began operations in low Earth orbit, a new generation of advanced solar cells from Spectrolab, twice as efficient as their predecessors, are supplementing the existing arrays to allow the ISS to continue to operate to 2030 and beyond. Eight new arrays, known as iROSAs (ISS Roll-Out Solar Arrays) are being installed on the ISS in orbit.
Spectrolab provides products to the commercial satellite industry, the Department of Defense, NASA, domestic and international law enforcement agencies and global aerospace companies.
Spectrolab products have powered successful space missions, including solar panels which are in operation on Mars, as part of a reconnaissance satellite and two land-exploration rovers (Spirit and Opportunity). Note: NASA's long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has finished its first marathon on another planet. The Opportunity Mars rover was only planned for a 90 day space mission, but is still going strong after 14 years.
In 2016, Spectrolab achieved a significant milestone by celebrating 60 years of space heritage. Additionally, by August 2016, Spectrolab was the first to have solar cells operating on an interplanetary Jupiter mission setting a record with the furthest distance away from the sun – ever traveled by a solar powered vehicle.
The foundation of Spectrolab's success lies in our ability to rapidly transfer cutting-edge technology from a laboratory setting to a manufacturing process. Triple-junction concentrator solar cells designed and built by Spectrolab won the 2001 R&D 100 award for the most significant technologies by Research & Development Magazine's panel of industry experts. These solar cells, when used in a concentrator module, dramatically lowered the cost of photovoltaic solar electricity generation. Spectrolab worked with many CPV systems manufacturers to optimize systems using these high efficiency cells, tailored for the terrestrial solar spectrum under concentrations of 300 to more than 1,000 suns. Spectrolab cells have set numerous world records for conversion efficiency, and in 2006, Spectrolab broke through yet another barrier, producing the first solar cell to exceed 40% efficiency.
1970s -1990s
Transitioning to High Volume Multijunction Production
As the demand for more powerful, more efficient, and more capable satellites increased in the 1970s and 1980s, Spectrolab developed increasingly more powerful solar cells, progressing from 12% conversion efficiency of early silicon solar cell to greater than 30% today using state-of-the-art multijunction solar cells. Once these GaAs-based solar cells were successfully demonstrated in space, and the path toward a successful multijunction technology was established, Spectrolab completely retooled its factory to produce multijunction cells. Today Spectrolab has the ability to produce nearly 500,000W (more than 30 high power satellites) per year with state-of-the-art multijunction solar cells and panels. In 1993, the company installed the world's most advanced MOVPE (metal organic vapor phase epitaxy) materials growth reactors as part of a high-capacity gallium arsenide solar cell production line, and has since largely replaced much this fleet, in 2009, with the latest generation technology.
1960s
Solar Simulators are Born Early in the development of space solar cell technology, Spectrolab recognized an industry need to test solar cells and other devices in well-controlled conditions simulating those found in space. During the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, a Spectrolab product became the first solar panel to be placed on the moon. Additionally, Bell Helicopter became the first customer for Spectrolab's first Nightsun® searchlight. At 30-million candlepower, the Nightsun® is the world's most powerful airborne searchlight and is used by many military, maritime and search and rescue organizations, including the British Ministry of Defense, which uses the Nightsun® exclusively. In 1962, the company designed and began manufacturing both steady-state and pulsed solar simulators, which have since become an industry standard. Spectrolab then turned the light sources used to simulate the sun into an innovative searchlight product line.
During these years Spectrolab also instituted state-of-the-art process control tools such as Six Sigma and DoE and created Work Center Teams to focus engineering, manufacturing, and equipment expertise on each process step.
1950s
Firsts in Space PV
Spectrolab was established in 1956, when local entrepreneur Alfred Mann brought together a group of engineers to provide high-quality optical filters and mirrors for use in government contracts. Since its founding, Spectrolab has led the way in the development of high-efficiency solar cells for space missions.
Spectrolab established its credibility in the space industry with Pioneer 1, in 1958, carrying the company's first body-mounted solar panels; Explorer 6, the satellite that in 1959 provided the first photograph of Earth from space, supplied with Spectrolab's first solar arrays; the Syncom satellite, the first satellite placed in geosynchronous Earth orbit; and the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969, which included the installation of the first solar panel on the moon. Since those early days, Spectrolab has been the world's leading supplier of space photovoltaic solar cells and panels.
Entrepreneur Alfred Mann, with other founders and engineers, breaking ground to start Spectrolab in 1956.
Tom Hudspeth (left) and Harold Rosen (right) of Hughes Aircraft Company, atop the Eiffel Tower with a model of Syncom, the first successful geosynchronous satellite.
Tom and Harold 30 years later, near a full-scall model of Syncom's sophisticated descendant, Optus B.
Careers
Spectrolab Inc., a Boeing Company, is the world's largest manufacturer of spacecraft solar cells. In 2009, Spectrolab broke another industry record when it announced the completion of its latest technological innovation, a solar cell with the ability to convert 41.6% of the sun's rays into electrical power, a first in the solar cell industry. This was verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of Energy.
Spectrolab is headquartered in Sylmar, California, about 20 miles northeast of Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1956, and is one of the world's leading suppliers of photovoltaic solar cells, solar panels, searchlights, and solar simulators. Spectrolab has been supplying solar array panels to the space industry for 60 years.
In 2000, Spectrolab was purchased by the Boeing Company. Spectrolab still resides on the original site in California's San Fernando Valley.
Be part of this success story, apply for one of the job openings currently available at Spectrolab. We offer a competitive benefits package, which includes a variety of options in health and life insurance.
Stay safe from recruitment fraud! The only way to apply for a position at Boeing is via our Careers website. Learn how to protect yourself from recruitment fraud. Boeing is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.
Request an Accommodation. Applicant Privacy. EEO is the Law Poster. Boeing Policy on EEO, Affirmative Action and Harassment.
Boeing participates in E-Verify. Details in English and Spanish.
Right to Work Statement in English and Spanish.
Distributors
Distributors &
Service Centers
John Cameron Aviation
Australia
www.jcaviation.com.au
PicksAir
UK / Western Europe
https://www.picksair.co.uk/
Efix Aviation
Brazil
https://en.efixaviation.com.br/
Distributors Only
AviTronics International AB
Sweden
www.avitronics.se