EEE 460: Optoelectronics Laboratory

Experiment No. 5
Name of the Experiment: Study of Ideal and Practical Solar Cells

Objectives:

The objectives of this experiments are to be able to calculate and analyze output performances of
ideal and practical solar cells based on solar irradiation condition, operating temperature, diode
ideality factor, series and shunt resistances.

Prelab: Reading assignment: relevant section of text-book

Theory:

A photovoltaic device or a solar cell converts the incident radiation energy into electrical energy.
The schematic diagram of Fig. 1 illustrates how carriers are generated by photons incident onto
different regions of the p-n junction diode of a solar cell, and how these photo-generated carriers
are separated to result in an output voltage or current.

(a) (b)
Figure 1. Schematic diagram illustrating (a) buildup of open circuit voltage and (b) short circuit
current in a single-junction a solar cell (figure taken from referred textbook)

The photocurrent (Iph) shown in Fig. 1 is related to radiation intensity (I) as per the relation Iph =
KI, where K is a device specific constant. The total current through a solar cell in the presence of
a load is given by the following expression:
  eV 
I total   I ph  I o [exp    1]
 nk BT 

Here n is ideality factor of the diode and T is the operating temperature. The overall I-V
characteristics of a p-n diode in the presence of a load is shown in Fig. 2. For the case shown
here, the load is operating at the maximum power point.

Figure 2. Representative I-V characteristics of a solar-cell in the presence of a load resistor R

(figure taken from referred textbook)

The I-V characteristics of a solar cell is significantly influenced by numerous factors, which
include solar illumination condition, temperature, bandgap and other material parameters,
doping, series-resistance (Rs) resulting from finite resistance of the diode, and shunt-resistance
(Rp) resulting from parallel conduction paths through the edge of the device or through the grain
boundaries of polycrystalline materials. The temperature dependence of solar cell performance
can be accounted from Eqn. (1). In doing so, one should also consider the temperature
dependence of the reverse saturation current- which is strongly dependent on intrinsic carrier
concentration of the semiconductor material. The series and shunt resistance of ideal solar cells
are zero and infinity respectively. For practical devices, the effect of R s and Rp are often
accounted for using equivalent circuit model of the solar cell, which is shown in Fig. 3. In
addition to Isc, Voc, maximum power point (Pmax), an important figure of merit of a practical solar
cell is its fill factor (FF), which is defined as: FF = Pmax/(IscVoc)
Figure 3. Schematic diagram illustrating equivalent circuit model of a solar-cell (taken from
referred textbook)

Problems:

Consider a Silicon solar cell operating at 300 K temperature. Unless otherwise specified, the
diode ideality factor of the cell is 1 and it has a reverse saturation current of 25 x 10-6 mA. The
photocurrent of the solar cell under 500 Wm-2 solar irradiation condition is 10 mA.
 Task 1: Assuming ideal solar cell, calculate and plot its I-V characteristics. Calculate the
Voc, Isc and FF of the device from this plot. Also calculate and plot power vs. voltage (P-
V) characteristics of the cell.
 Task 2: On the same graph, plot I-V characteristics of this ideal silicon solar cell for solar
irradiation of 500, 600, 700, 800 and 1000 Wm-2. Also make a plot to show how open
circuit voltage, short-circuit current and maximum power point vary with solar intensity.
How would you vary the load resistance to operate at the maximum power point under
each irradiation condition?
 Task 3: You will have to show the effect of diode ideality factor on the solar cell I-V
characteristics. Vary n from 1 to 2.5 and plot several I-V characteristics on the same
graph. Also make a plot to show how open circuit voltage, short-circuit current and
maximum power point vary with diode ideality factor.
 Task 4: Plot I-V curves of the ideal silicon solar cell on the same graph considering
temperature to vary from 15 to 40 oC. Assume that the reverse saturation current varies in
accordance with the dependence of intrinsic carrier concentration on temperature.
 Task 5: Using equivalent circuit model, calculate and plot the following:
a) I-V characteristics of the cell when Rs varies from 0 to 10 kΩ while Rp remains
infinity; also plot the fill factor vs. Rs for this case
b) I-V characteristics of the cell when Rp varies from 500 kΩ to 1 MΩ while Rs =
0; also plot the fill factor vs. Rp in this case.

Assignments: Present results with relevant discussions

References: Optoelectronics and Photonics: Principles and Practices by S.O. Kasap (First and
Second edition)