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Modeling of spatially inhomogeneous solar cells by a multi‐diode approach
Author(s) -
Grabitz P. O.,
Rau U.,
Werner J. H.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.200521205
Subject(s) - saturation current , equivalent series resistance , diode , saturation (graph theory) , current density , resistive touchscreen , voltage , current (fluid) , materials science , energy conversion efficiency , degradation (telecommunications) , optoelectronics , power (physics) , solar cell , electrical engineering , physics , engineering , mathematics , thermodynamics , combinatorics , quantum mechanics
An equivalent circuit model consisting of parallel connected diodes with different electronic quality simulates the electronic properties of solar cells with spatially inhomogeneous material quality. Variations of the local saturation current density result in a degradation of the open circuit voltage, the fill factor and, in consequence, of the overall power conversion efficiency. However, a local series resistance introduced into this network limits this degradation by preventing areas with high saturation current density to dominate the electronic losses of the entire device. Analyzing the integral current/voltage‐curves of the networks shows the diode ideality larger than unity to result from resistive limitations to the spatially inhomogeneous current flow. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)