Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • Understanding moisture ingress and packaging requirements for photovoltaic modules
  • Evaluation of encapsulant materials for PV applications
  • Inline processing of crystalline silicon solar cells: the holy grail for large-scale manufacturing?
  • PV sector outlook: an analyst’s perspective

• Featured Technical Papers

  • Transparent conducting oxide deposition techniques for thin-film photovoltaics
  • Comprehensive and advanced quality assurance measures for optimal yields from PV power plants
  • Surface passivation of silicon solar cells using industrially relevant Al2O3 deposition techniques
  • Influence of a-Si:H deposition temperature on thermal stability of a-Si:H/SiNx:H stacks
  • Integrated loops: a prerequisite for sustainable and environmentally-friendly polysilicon production

During the past few years, electroluminescence imaging has become a standard characterization technique for failure analysis and qualification of silicon wafer-based solar cells and modules. In contrast, the same analysis is not yet widely used for thin-film modules. This article demonstrates that electroluminescence analysis is a highly suitable tool for the in-depth investigation of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ thin-film solar modules as well as for standard quality control. The reciprocity between the photovoltaic action and the electroluminescence emission of solar cell devices is used to derive quantitative relations that describe the voltage distribution within a solar module. Individual shunt spots in a module are not only visualized but their influence on the current voltage curves of the individual cells is quantitatively analyzed. Furthermore, device parameters like the sheet resistances of the window layer and the back contact are derived from the electroluminescence images

Paper costs $15.00. It's FREE when you purchase a subscription.