QUY NHON UNIVERSITY Lecture notes in Nguyen Minh Vuong Semiconductor Materials and Devices 7.3. SOLAR CELL A solar cell is a p-n junction device which converts optical energy into electrical energy with no external bias directly applied across the junction. The optical energy is transmitted by photons (quantums of light). Electrical energy is stored in electromagnetic fields, which in tum can make a current of electrons flow. Thus, a solar cell converts light, a flow of photons, to electric current, a flow of electrons. We will consider the simple p-n junction solar cell with uniform generation of excess carriers. 7.3.1. Solar Radiation The radiative erergy output from the sun occurs due to a nuclear fusion reaction. Every second, about 610! kg hydrogen is converted to helium, with a net mass loss of about 4% 103 kg, Tae mass loss is converted through the Einstein relation (E = mc?) to 4x10" J. This energy is emitted primarily as electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet to infrared region. The intensity of solar radiation outside the earth’s atmosphere, at the average distance of its orbit around the sun, is defined as the solar constant (Gsc) and has a value of Gsc = 1367 W/m?. The sunlight is attenuated by clouds and atmospheric scattering and absorption. The attenuation depends primarily on the length of the light’s path through the atmosphere, or the mass of air through which it passes. This “air mass (AM)” is defined as the ratio of the mass of atmosphere through which beam radiation passes to the mass it would pass through if the sun were at zenith (directly overhead). As shown in Figure 7.23a, under the simple assumption of a flat earth the air mass ratio can be express as we (137) where, L is the path length through the atmosphere with sun directly overhead, Lo is the path length through the atmosphere to reach a spot on the surface at zenith (ie. normal to the Earth's surface) at sea level, and fis the angle between the vertical and the sun’s position. Figure 7.23b shows some special values of m. AMO coresponds with the solar spectrum outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The spectrum as seen from a satellite is referred to as the AMO spectrum and closely fits the spectrum of a black body at 5800 K. The total power density is 1348 W/m. AMI (m = 1, B= 90°) is the sun directly overhead (the power density is reduced to 1040 W/m?), and AMLS (m= 1.5, 2=48.2°) the average solar spectrum at tke earth's surface. Solar cell 167QUY NHON UNIVERSITY Lecture notes in Nguyen Minh Vuong Semiconductor Materials and Devices performance is specified with reference to the air mass AMI.5 spectrum. This spectrum represents the sunlight at the Earth’s surface when the sun is at an angle of 48.2° from the vertical. At this angle the incident power is about 1000 W/m?. zw ans Fy Figure 7.23. (a) The air mass ratio m is a measure of the amount of atmosphere the sun's rays must ‘pass through to reach the earth's surface and (b) the solar spectrum outside the Earth's atmosphere (m ~ 0, AMO), the sun is straight overhead (m~ 1, AMI) and the average solar spectrum at the earth's surface, 7.3.2. The p-n Junction Solar Cell 7.3.2.1. Construction A schematic representation of a p-n junction solar cell is shown in Figure 7.24a. It consists of a shallow p-n junction formed at the surface, a front ohmic contact stripe and fingers, an antireflection coating on the front surface, and a back ohmic contact that covers the entire back surface. The surface reflection of the incident light from air (n= 1) into semiconductor silicon (1s: = 3.5) is about 0.31. This means that 31% of, incident light is reflected and is not available for conversion to electrical energy in a silicon solar cell. “oO HERE ‘eemode o ley prsogentate rent Figure 7.24. (a) Structure of p-n junction solar cell with load resistance (b) Energy band diagram of solar cell with sepration of electrons & holes and formation of tae open circuit voltage Vy 168QUY NHON UNIVERSITY Lecture notes in Nguyen Minh Vuong Semiconductor Materials and Devices 7.3.2.2. Principle of Operation The work principle of solar cell is based on the phovovoltaic effect. In general, the photovoltaic effect means the generation of a potential difference at the junction of two different materials in response to visible light or other radiation. The basic processes behind the photovoltaic effect are (1) generation of the charge carriers due to the absorption of photons in the materials that form a junction, (2) subsequent separation of the photo-generated charge carriers in the junction, and (3) collection of the photo-generated charge carriers at the terminals of the junction. The solar cell works in three steps: (1) Photons with the appropriate wavelengths hit the solar cell and are absorbed by the semiconducting material, such as silicon; (2) Electrons (negatively charged) are knocked loose from their atoms, causing an electric potential difference. Current starts flowing through the material to cancel the potential diference and this electricity is captured. Due to the special composition of solar cells, clectrons are only allowed to move in a single direction. (3) An array of solar cells converts solar energy into a usable amount of direct current (DC) electricity The action of ihe solar cell is explained as follows: When the solar cell is exposed to the solar spectrum, photons that have energy less than the bandgap Ey make no contribution to the solar cell output. Photons that have energy greater than Ey contribute to the cell output. Energy greater than Ey is wasted partly as heat. Photons (EHPs) are generated in the depletion region of p-1 junction and region adjacent to that (within the with the appropriate wavelengths are absorbed and electron-hole pairs diffusion length of the minority carriers). These photogenerated EHPs are separated by the built-in electric field. Electrons in the p-side slide down the barrier potential to move to the n-side while holes in the n-side move towards the p-side. When the p-n junction diode is open circuited, the accumulation of electrons and holes on the two sides of the junction gives rise to an open ~ circuit voltage Voc. If a load resistance is connected across the diode, a current will flow in the circuit. The maximum current, celled the short — circuit current (Isc) is obtained when an electric short is maded across the diode terminals. Note that, the current flows as long as the diode is exposed to sunlight and the magnitude of the current is proportional to the light intensity. 7.3. To derive the conversion efficiency, we consider the energy band diagram of a p- Characteristics ‘n junction under soler radiation. We can see that Voc depends on the light intensity. 169QUY NHON UNIVERSITY Lecture notes in Nguyen Minh Vuong Semiconductor Materials and Devices The efficiency does not depend critically on the bandgap. The equivalent circuit is shown in Figure 7.25, where a constant-current source is in parallel with the junction. The source /pj results from the excitation of excess carriers by solar radiation, /» is the diode saturation current, and Rr is the load resistance. wp 3 Figure 7.25. Idealized equivalent cireuit of a p-n junction solar cell. The ideal -V’ characteristics (thereby ignoring recombination in the depletion region) of such a solar cell device are given by “4. (7.38) The curve passes through the fourth quadrants, giving the power which can be extracted from the device. A plot of Equation 7.38 is given in Figure 7.26a. The [-V curve is more generally represented by Figure 7.26b, which is an inversion of Figure 7.26a with respect to the voltage axis. A load Rr. is connected to the solar cell as shown in Figure 7.25. The current through the Rx is in the opposite direction to the conventional current flow. Thus, i I (7.39) This current and the current in the circuit must satisfy both the /-’ characteristics of the solar cell Equation (7.38) and that of the load Equation (7.39) simultaneously. | is shown in Figure 7.26a. The intersection point is the The load line with slope operating point at which the load and the solar cell have the same current and voltage. By choosing a proper load, close to 80% of the product /scVoc can be extracted, where Isc is the short-circuit current and Voc is the open-circuit voltage of the solar cell; the area in the figure is the maximum-power rectangle. Also defined in Figure 7.26b are the quantities J» and /» that correspond to the current and voltage, respectively, for the maximum power output Py (= InV/n)- 170QUY NHON UNIVERSITY Lecture notes in Nguyen Minh Vuong Semiconductor Materials and Devices In Mec (b) Figure 7.26. Current-veltage characteristics of a solar cell under illumination with maximum power rectangle, (b) Inversion of (a) about the voltage axis. From Equation 7.38 we obtain for the open-circuit voltage (at /= 0) 1, i Voc tage +1} ( 4) (7.40a) qh q\h And the short —circuit current (at = 0) Too =Tpns (7.40b) Hence, for a given Jpi, Voc increases logarithmically with decreasing saturation current /9. The output power is given by oar] (e -}-1)- (7.41) The condition for maximum power is obtained when 2 0, 0r kT Ve tn (7.42) AD) te ( k r) T=1,| = Jeo" =7,,| 1-2 (7.43) ( q } an ‘The maximum output power P, is then (7.44) Ideal efficiency: The power conversion efficiency of a solar cell is given by 171