EEE 165

CSUS

Instructor: Russ Tatro

Chapter 6 Photovoltaic Devices

S.O. Kasap, Optoelectronics and Photonics, Principles and Practices, 2001
Solutions to Chapter 6 Homework.
Problems 3 part a) only, 4
3 a.

Remember to scale incident light power for the IV graph.

I = 22.5 mA
V = 0.45 V
Pdelivered = 10.1 mW
Input sun-light power Pin = 0.4 W
= 2.5%
Isc = 25 mA
For n = 1 Voc = 0.532V
For n = 2 Voc = 0.514 V

6.3

Solar cell driving a load

a
A Si solar cell of area 4 cm2 is connected to drive a load R as in Figure 6.8 (a). It
has the I-V characteristics in Figure 6.8 (b) under an illumination of 600 W m-2. Suppose
that the load is 20 and it is used under a light intensity of 1 kW m-2. What are the
current and voltage in the circuit? What is the power delivered to the load? What is the
efficiency of the solar cell in this circuit?
Solution
a
The solar cell is used under an illumination of 1 kW m-2. The short circuit current
has to be scaled up by 1000/600 = 1.67. Figure 6Q3-1 shows the solar cell characteristics
scaled by a factor 1.67 along the current axis. The load line for R = 20 and its
intersection with the solar cell IV characteristics at P which is the operating point P.
Thus,
I 22.5 mA and V 0.45 V
The power delivered to the load is
Pout = V = (22.510-3)(0.45V) = 0.0101W, or 10.1 mW.
This is not the maximum power available from the solar cell. The input sun-light
power is
Pin = (Light Intensity)(Surface Area)
= (1000 W m-2)(4 cm2 10-4 m2/cm2) = 0.4 W
The efficiency is
0.010
P
= 100 out = 100
= 2.5 0 0
0.4
Pin

which is poor.

I (mA)
V

0
0.2

0.4

0.6

10
I-V for a solar cell under an
illumination of 1000 Wm-2.
20

M
30

Figure 6Q3-1

The load line for R = 20

(I-V for the load)

6.4
Open circuit voltage A solar cell under an illumination of 100 W m-2 has a short
circuit current Isc of 50 mA and an open circuit output voltage Voc, of 0.55V. What are the
short circuit current and open circuit voltages when the light intensity is halved?
Solution

The short circuit current is the photocurrent so that at

Isc2

I2
50 W m2

=
= Isc1
(50 mA)
= 25 mA
100 W m 2
I1

Assuming n = 1, the new open circuit voltage is

Voc2 = Voc1 +

nk BT I2
= 0.55 + 1( 0.0259)ln(0.5) = 0.532 V
ln
e
I1

Assuming n = 2, the new open circuit voltage is

Voc2 = Voc1 +

nk BT I2
= 0.55 + 2(0.0259 )ln(0.5)= 0.514 V
ln
e
I1