This paper assesses the performance of antimonide‐based thermophotovoltaic cells fabricated by different technologies. In particular, the paper compares the performance of lattice matched quaternary (GaInAsSb) cells epitaxially grown on GaSb substrates to the performance of ternary (GaInSb) and binary (GaSb) cells fabricated by Zn diffusion on bulk substrates. The focus of the paper is to delineate the key performance advantages of the highest performance‐to‐date of the quaternary cells to the performance of the alternative ternary and binary antimonide‐based diffusion technology. The performance characteristics of the cells considered are obtained from PC‐1D simulations using appropriate material parameters. © 2003 American Institute of Physics