Fundamental Mechanisms Behind the Reverse Characteristic of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ Solar Cells

Fundamental Mechanisms Behind the Reverse Characteristic of Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ Solar Cells

Bakker, N.J. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices; TNO)
Assen, Suzanne (TNO)
Rasia, Alix (TNO)
Barreau, Nicolas (Université de Nantes)
Weeber, A.W. (TU Delft Photovoltaic Materials and Devices; TNO)
Theelen, Mirjam (TNO)

2022

Partial shading of PV modules can lead to degradation of the shaded cells. The degradation originates from a reverse bias voltage over the shaded cells. In order to mitigate reverse bias damage in Cu(In, Ga)Se2 (CIGS) modules, a good understanding of the fundamental mechanisms governing the reverse characteristic is required. In this study, a model is introduced that describes this behavior for CIGS cells. In this model, the low and non-Ohmic leakage current is accounted for by the space charge limited current component. A sharp increase in current that is typically observed in the CIGS reverse characteristics can be described by Fowler-Nordheim tunneling. This model has been validated against measurements performed at different temperatures and illumination intensities, and is able to describe the dependencies of the reverse bias behavior on both temperature and illumination.

Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)
partial shading
reverse bias
thin-film PV

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:ad067a26-9c4e-4fee-9612-1b2b41db7bab

https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2022.3196827

2023-07-01

2156-3381

IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 12 (6), 1412-1417

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 N.J. Bakker, Suzanne Assen, Alix Rasia, Nicolas Barreau, A.W. Weeber, Mirjam Theelen