SOLAR CELLS

<CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLAR CELLS>

<WORKING>

<MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING>

<HIGH EFFICIENCY CELLS>

<EFFICIENCY IN SOLAR CELLS>

 DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCES

ENGINEERING PHYSICS

SOLAR PV CELL CHARACTERISTICS

NAME ROLL NO. PRN NO. E-mail

Aditya Dambal 3023 22010382 aditya.22010302@viit.ac.in
#Leader
Mansi Rathi 3021 22010350 mansi.22010350@viit.ac.in

Sakshi Tale 3022 22010366 sakshi.22010366@viit.ac.in

Lalitkumar Choudhary 3018 22010302 lalit.22010302@viit.ac.in

CHARACTERISTICS OF SOLAR
CELLS
• Photovoltaic Effect
In order to generate power, a voltage must be generated as well as a current.
Voltage is generated in a solar cell by a process known as the "photovoltaic
effect". The collection of light-generated carriers by the p-n junction causes a
movement of electrons to the n-type side and holes to the p-type side of the
junction. Under short circuit conditions, there is no build up of charge, as the
carriers exit the device as light-generated current.
WORKING OF A SOLAR CELL

• If light strikes on n-type semiconductor the electrons from such light-generated electron-hole pairs are
unable to migrate to the p-region since they are not able to cross the potential barrier due to the repulsion
of an electric field across depletion layer. At the same time, the light-generated holes cross the depletion
region due to the attraction of electric field of depletion layer where they recombine with electrons, and
then the lack of electrons here is compensated by valence electrons of p-region, and this makes as many
numbers of holes in the p-region. As such light generated holes are shifted to the p-region where they are
trapped because once they come to the p-region cannot be able to come back to n-type region due to the
repulsion of potential barrier.
• As the negative charge (light generated electrons) is trapped in one side and positive charge (light
generated holes) is trapped in opposite side of a cell, there will be a potential difference between these two
sides of the cell. This potential difference is typically 0.5 V. This is how a photovoltaic cells or solar cells
produce potential difference.
MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING

• All PV cells perform the same task of harvesting solar energy and converting it to useful
electricity. The most common material for solar panel construction is silicon which has
semiconducting properties. Several of these solar cells are required to construct a solar panel
and many panels make up a photovoltaic array.
• There are three types of PV cell technologies that dominate the world market:
mono-crystalline silicon
polycrystalline silicon and,
thin film.
• Higher efficiency PV technologies, including gallium arsenide and multi-junction cells, are
less common due to their high cost, but are ideal for use in concentrated photovoltaic systems
and space applications. There is also an assortment of emerging PV cell technologies which
include Perovskite cells, organic solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells and quantum dots.
 MONO CRYSTALLINE POLY CRYSTALLINE
The first commercially available solar cells
were made from mono-crystalline silicon,
which is an extremely pure form of silicon.
To produce these, a seed crystal is pulled out
of a mass of molten silicon creating a
cylindrical ingot with a single, continuous,
crystal lattice structure. This crystal is then
mechanically sawn into thin wafers, polished
and doped to create the required p-n junction.
After an anti-reflective coating and the front
and rear metal contacts are added, the cell is
finally wired and packaged alongside many
other cells into a full solar panel.
Instead of a single uniform crystal structure,
polycrystalline (or multi-crystalline) cells
contain many small grains of crystals . They
can be made by simply casting a cube-shaped
in got from molten silicon, then sawn and
packaged similar to mono-crystalline cells.
Another method known as edge-defined film-
fed growth (EFG) involves drawing a thin
ribbon of polycrystalline silicon from a mass
of molten silicon
 THIN FILM
• Cells can also be made from thin films—making them much more flexible
and durable. One type of thin film PV cell is amorphous silicon (a-Si) which
is produced by depositing thin layers of silicon on to a glass substrate. The
result is a very thin and flexible cell which uses less than 1% of the silicon
needed for a crystalline cell. Their efficiency, however, is greatly reduced
because the silicon atoms are much less ordered than in their crystalline
forms leaving 'dangling bonds' that combine with other elements making
them electrically inactive. These cells also suffer from a 20% drop in
efficiency within the first few months of operation before stabilizing, and are
therefore sold with power ratings based on their degraded output
> Mono-crystalline < > Poly-crystalline<
HIGH EFFICIENCY CELLS
• Gallium Arsenide
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is an alternative semiconductor which is highly suitable for
PV applications. Gallium arsenide has a similar crystal structure to that of mono-
crystalline silicon, but with alternating gallium and arsenic atoms.
Due to its higher light absorption coefficient and wider band gap, GaAs cells are much
more efficient than those made of silicon. Additionally, GaAs cells can operate at much
higher temperatures without considerable performance degradation, making them
suitable for concentrated photovoltaics. GaAs cells are produced by depositing layers
of gallium and arsenic onto a base of single crystal GaAs, which defines the orientation
of the new crystal growth
• Multi-Junction
Multi-junction cells have 2 or more junctions layered on top of each other,
allowing energy to be collected from multiple portions of the spectrum. Light
that is not absorbed by the first layer will travel through and interact with
subsequent layers. Multi-junction cells are produced in the same way as
gallium arsenide cells—slowly depositing layers of material onto a single
crystal base.
SOLAR CELL EFFICIENCY

• The efficiency of photovoltaic cells is one of the elements that determine the
production of a photovoltaic solar energy installation. The other factors that
determine the performance of a solar plant are latitude and climate.
• The conversion efficiency value of a photovoltaic cell depends on several
factors. 
• When we refer to conversion efficiency, we refer implicitly to
the thermodynamic efficiency, , quantum efficiency, the open circuit voltage
ratio and the fill factor.
THERMODYNAMIC EFFICIENCY

• A thermodynamic model of a solar cell is created using the internal energy and entropy
transport equations. The energy and entropy transfers involved in the interaction of
radiation with the cell are analysed and the entropy generation rate arising from this
process is calculated. This enables the I–V characteristic, the power of output and heat
transfers to be determined and it is shown that, for an ideal cell with no non-radiative
recombination, the local entropy generation considered as a function of the terminal
voltage has a minimum at the open-circuit point.
• When the ideal cell is operated as a light emitting diode, it absorbs heat from a reservoir
and thus acts as a refrigerator, but a very small amount of non-radiative recombination
annuls this effect. Finally, a clear relationship between the device efficiency and the
Carnot efficiency is obtained in terms of global entropy generation.
QUANTUM EFFICIENCES
• The "quantum efficiency" (Q.E.) is the ratio of the number of carriers
collected by the solar cell to the number of photons of a given energy
incident on the solar cell. The quantum efficiency may be given either as a
function of wavelength or as energy. If all photons of a certain wavelength
are absorbed and the resulting minority carriers are collected, then the
quantum efficiency at that particular wavelength is unity. The quantum
efficiency for photons with energy below the band gap is zero.
EXTERNAL EFFICIENCIES
• The "external" quantum efficiency of a silicon solar cell includes the effect of
optical losses such as transmission and reflection. However, it is often useful to
look at the quantum efficiency of the light left after the reflected and
transmitted light has been lost.

INTERNAL EFFICIENCIES
"Internal" quantum efficiency refers to the efficiency with which photons that
are not reflected or transmitted out of the cell can generate collectable carriers.
By measuring the reflection and transmission of a device, the external quantum
efficiency curve can be corrected to obtain the internal quantum efficiency
curve
Internal quantum efficiency. Lp is the emitter diffusion length (µm), Sp is the front surface recombination velocity (cm/s), Ln is the base diffusion
length (µm), Sn is the rear surface recombination velocity (cm/s).
OPEN CIRCUIT VOLTAGE RATIO
• The open-circuit voltage, VOC, is the maximum voltage available from a solar
cell, and this occurs at zero current. The open-circuit voltage corresponds to
the amount of forward bias on the solar cell due to the bias of the solar cell
junction with the light-generated current. The open-circuit voltage is shown
on the IV curve below. VOC goes up linearly with temperature. However, this
is not the case as I0 increases rapidly with temperature primarily due to
changes in the intrinsic carrier concentration ni. The effect of temperature is
complicated and varies with cell technology.
FILL FACTOR
• The short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage are the maximum current and
voltage respectively from a solar cell. However, at both of these operating points,
the power from the solar cell is zero.
• The "fill factor", more commonly known by its abbreviation "FF", is a parameter
which, in conjunction with Voc and Isc, determines the maximum power from a
solar cell. The FF is defined as the ratio of the maximum power from the solar cell
to the product of Voc and Isc
•  a solar cell with a higher voltage has a larger possible FF since the "rounded"
portion of the IV curve takes up less area. The maximum theoretical FF from a
solar cell can be determined by differentiating the power from a solar cell with
respect to voltage and finding where this is equal to zero.
Graph of cell output current (red line) and power (blue line) as a function of voltage. Also shown are the cell
short-circuit current (Isc) and open-circuit voltage (VOC) points, as well as the maximum power point (Vmp, Imp).
REFERENCES
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