0000000000303176
AUTHOR
Charly Berthod
showing 13 related works from this author
Reduction of temperature coefficients in multicrystalline silicon solar cells after light-induced degradation
2015
This study focuses on the variations of the temperature coefficients after light-induced degradation (LID) of compensated multicrystalline silicon solar cells from three different ingots. The ingots have been chosen to see the effect of the compensation level, the resistivity and the impact of adding gallium to keep the resistivity as constant as possible along the ingot. The temperature coefficients of the efficiency experience a major decrease after LID on all ingots. We found that this decrease varies along the ingot height and does not correspond to the VOC drop. Moreover, no direct correlation with the interstitial oxygen concentration profiles could be seen.
Simulated and measured temperature coefficients in compensated silicon wafers and solar cells
2019
Abstract In this paper we perform a thorough investigation of the temperature coefficients of c-Si solar cells and wafers, based on both experimental data and device simulations. Groups of neighboring wafers were selected from different heights of four high performance multicrystalline silicon ingots cast using different dopants concentrations and Si feedstocks; Three different target resistivities of compensated silicon ingots based on Elkem Solar Silicon (ESS®), which are purified through a metallurgical route, and one non-compensated reference ingot. The wafers were processed into Al-BSF and PERCT type solar cells, as well as into lifetime samples subjected to selected solar cell process…
A high-accuracy calibration method for temperature dependent photoluminescence imaging
2019
This work demonstrates a novel technique for calibrating temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) images of silicon wafers with high accuracy. The PL signal is calibrated using a heat-controlled photoconductance (PC) stage integrated into the PL imaging system. The PC signal is measured in true steady state condition and used to determine the calibration constant under the same temperature and illumination as the PL image, thus providing a high-precision calibration. This results in a robust method for imaging of important physical parameters, such as the minority carrier lifetime and the implied voltage at different temperatures, as well as the temperature coefficients and the recombin…
Temperature Coefficients of Compensated Silicon Solar Cells – Influence of Ingot Position and Blend-in-ratio
2015
Published version of an article in the journal: Energy Procedia. Also available on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.004 Solar-grade silicon made from a metallurgical route presents boron and phosphorus compensation. Earlier work has shown that cells made from such material produce more energy than reference polysilicon modules when the temperature and irradiance is high. In the present study, solar cells from two different ingots with different blend-in-ratios were made from wafers at varying ingot heights in order to investigate how the temperature coefficients vary with compensation level and ingot height. The results suggest that solar modules made with solar ce…
On the Variability of the Temperature Coefficients of mc-Si Solar Cells with Irradiance
2016
Abstract The temperature sensitivity of silicon solar cells is in general assumed to be constant with irradiance in PV forecasting models, although it has been demonstrated experimentally that this is not true. In this study a theoretical model is established that describes the variation of the temperature coefficients of a silicon solar cell as a function of the irradiance. It is shown that the temperature sensitivity of the solar cell efficiency is decreasing with the irradiance and that the main reason for this behavior comes from the increase of the open-circuit voltage with light intensity. Moreover, a dependency of the cell's ideality factor on the irradiance has to be assumed to rece…
Temperature Dependent Quantum Efficiencies in Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells
2015
Abstract Several field studies comparing modules based on Elkem Solar Silicon ® (ESS ® ) cells with reference modules based on non-compensated virgin polysilicon show that the compensated ESS ® modules outperform the reference modules with comparable installed capacity under certain operating conditions. At high temperatures and high irradiation conditions the modules based on compensated silicon produce more energy than the reference modules. In order to increase the understanding of the observed effect cells are studied at different temperatures by the means of IV-characteristics as well as quantum efficiencies. Quantum efficiency measurements show that the main difference between ESS ® c…
How Gettering Affects the Temperature Sensitivity of the Implied Open Circuit Voltage of Multicrystalline Silicon Wafers
2019
The temperature sensitivity of the open circuit voltage of a solar cell is mainly driven by changes in the intrinsic carrier concentration, but also by the temperature dependence of the limiting recombination mechanisms in the cell. This paper investigates the influence of recombination through metallic impurities on the temperature sensitivity of multicrystalline silicon wafers. Spatially resolved temperature dependent analysis is performed to evaluate the temperature sensitivity of wafers from different brick positions before and after being subjected to phosphorus diffusion gettering. Local spatial analysis is performed on intra-grain areas, dislocation clusters and grain boundaries. Lar…
Temperature Coefficients of Crystal Defects in Multicrystalline Silicon Wafers
2020
This article investigates the influence of crystallographic defects on the temperature sensitivity of multicrystalline silicon wafers. The thermal characteristics of the implied open-circuit voltage is assessed since it determines most of the total temperature sensitivity of the material. Spatially resolved temperature-dependent analysis is performed on wafers from various brick positions; intragrain regions, grain boundaries, and dislocation clusters are examined. The crystal regions are studied before and after subjecting the wafers to phosphorus gettering, aiming to alter the metallic impurity concentration in various regions across the wafers. Most intragrain regions and grain boundarie…
Experimental Investigation of the Optimal Ingot Resistivity for both the Cell Performances and the Temperature Coefficients for Different Cell Archit…
2018
Compensation engineering enables the achievement of lower ingot resistivities with relatively constant performances along the ingot height. In this paper the impact of the bulk resistivity on the cell performances and the temperature coefficients is investigated for compensated and non-compensated multicrystalline silicon. Based on experimental data we show that reducing the bulk resistivity below a certain value improves the temperature coefficients but deteriorates the cell performances for two distinct cell architectures (AI-BSF and PERCT). Moreover this performance loss is not balanced out by the improved temperature coefficient for operating conditions below 70°C.
Temperature Sensitivity of Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells
2019
This paper presents an experimental investigation of the temperature coefficients of multicrystalline silicon solar cells. The aim was to determine if some cell parameters can affect positively the temperature sensitivity without detrimental impact on the efficiency. Commercial solar cells with different bulk resistivities, compensation levels, and cell architectures have been studied. We report that the base net doping, the location of the solar cell along the brick and the cell architecture have significant impacts on the temperature coefficients. Moreover, we show how the change in recombination mechanisms along the ingot height affects the temperature coefficients. The compensation leve…
Scanning electron microscopy analysis of defect clusters in multicrystalline solar grade silicon solar cells
2014
Solar cells from an identical commercial manufacturing unit have been investigated by electroluminescence to first detect the defect clusters. A further analysis has been done by scanning electron microscopy in secondary electron imaging mode to understand the propagation mechanism of defects. It appears that defect cluster boundaries can be very sharp or spread in the bulk with little apparent effect on the overall cell efficiency. And it is shown that grain boundaries act clearly as arrests to further propagation of these defects.
Reduced temperature sensitivity of multicrystalline silicon solar cells with low ingot resistivity
2016
This study presents experimental data on the reduction of temperature sensitivity of multicrystalline silicon solar cells made from low resistivity ingot. The temperature coefficients of solar cells produced from different ingot resistivities are compared, and the advantages of increasing the net doping are explained.
Temperature coefficients of multicrystalline compensated silicon solar cells
2016
Doktorgradsavhandling ved Fakultet for teknologi og realfag, Universitetet i Agder, 2016 This thesis focuses on the bulk properties influencing the temperature coefficients of solar cells. The conversion efficiency of PV devices degrades with increasing temperature. The temperature coefficient of the open-circuit voltage can be improved by increasing the open-circuit voltage. Therefore with the continuous improvement of the conversion efficiencies over the last decades due to the global R and D efforts, the temperature sensitivity was continuously reduced. The major research question of this thesis is: are there other ways to improve the temperature sensitivity? It had been shown prior to the pr…