EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication Project 2: Solar Cell Design Page 1 of 4

EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication
Dept. of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University Dept. of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University Dept. of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University Dept. of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2: : : : Solar Cell Design Solar Cell Design Solar Cell Design Solar Cell Design

Project Overview: The energy and power output of a solar cell is critical for both system design and
costing. The energy output depends on several factors:
Solar radiation at a particular location (calculated in Project #1)
Efficiency of the solar cell (determined by the solar cell design) measured at standard
conditions
Response of the solar cell to changes in conditions away from measurement conditions.

Project Details: The project consists of two parts. The first part is to design an optimum solar cell
using a solar simulation program called PC1D and compare the results to closed form equations.
ALL students must complete this component of the project. In the final report, every member of
the group must attach their own calculations (although the references justifying data may be
done as a group).

The second part of the project is to incorporate a more advanced effect into the solar cell calculations
working in groups of two or three. A set of suggested topics is given below, but you may also obtain
instructor approval to pursue another topic. The results and analysis will be presented both as a
written report and a short 15 minute presentation to the class.

It is highly recommended that all members of the group understand and be able to use the data and
resuts produced. The program and explanations should be written with user friendliness in mind, and
use good programming practices such as comments, and clear variable naming. The programs
developed in this project and the other two projects will also be used in the final program, and sloppy
programming will mean increased difficulty in using completing the final project.

For particularly good solutions, if your group is in agreement, your program and its results may be
included in the PVCDROM.

Grading:
Individual components (30%): Develop a program which calculates the solar radiation from TMY
data sets and answer several questions given below. This part must be done individually, and will be
graded individually.

Individual grading in group project (40%): Your group is required to submit a plan for completing
the project, indentifying who does what components in the write-up and in the presentation. Each
member will be graded individually for what is listed as their responsibility in the outline. Your
group may divide the work in any way you see fit, but all members must agree to this division, and
each member will be graded individually on the component assigned to them. It is also suggested that
organizational and recording duties rotate among the group members. While the individual work on
the project counts as a large fraction of the overall grade, 30% of the grade requires effective group
work, so simply focusing on your own assigned work is not an effective strategy.
Group Grade: (30%)
EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication Project 2: Solar Cell Design Page 2 of 4
The final assessment for the project is determined by their participation in the group and is
determined as follows:
1. Your team members assessment of your completion of assigned contributions (10%).
Each team member will be required to rate the participation of the other team members in
finishing their component, in effective communication with the team, and in completing the
non-technical components of the project.

2. Instructor assessment of the final project, including the integration of the components into a
cohesive whole, overall quality of end result. (20%)

Due Dates:
By October 12
th
, give the members on your team, your chosen topic and an assignment of
major responsibilities to team members.
October 24
th
: In-class presentations and final report due.
Part 1: Design of a solar cell
The goal of this part is to optimize a commercial silicon solar cell and examine the impact that
material parameters or other design features have on the efficiency. In all the calculations below, the
junction depth may not go below 0.1 m, or the solar cells are highly susceptible to shunting.

In your report you must:
1. Optimize a solar cell using front surface recombination of 5,000 cm/sec for both front and
back. The bulk recombination is 200 s for the base. Physically explain your results.
2. Using the current calculated by PC1D, calculate the open circuit voltage using closed for
equations and compare to PC1D. Physically explain your results.
3. Include a back surface field in the solar cell, and improve the front surface recombination to
1,000 cm/sec and re-do the optimization.
4. Include the degradation of minority carrier lifetime with doping in the optimization, and
physically explain the results.
Part 2: Calculation of energy over a year the solar cell
Based either on the closed form equations or on PC1D, each person should calculate the power from
the solar cell over the year for a chosen location using TMY data. In addition, each group must
choose one of the topics below and describe the impact on a energy from the solar cell.

Part 2 involves choosing one of the topics below, and using your analysis to compare the ideal
calculations to those you develop. You may choose other topics, but you must clear any other topic
with your instructor.

1. Calculation of series resistance for a 6 x 6 solar cell with a typical grid pattern and
optimization of the solar cell with the calculated series resistance. Using this series resistance
and a reasonable vale of shunt resistance, determine the variation with light intensity and
calculate the energy over the course of a year. You will need to justify assumptions you
make about the technical feasibility of you grid width, height, and resistivity. You will need
to include an estimated of the contact resistance between the metal and the solar cell.

EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication Project 2: Solar Cell Design Page 3 of 4
2. Inclusion of temperature of the solar cell. Based on the TMY data (which includes
temperature data), calculate the impact of temperature of the overall energy calculated from
the solar cell. For simplicity, examine the cases of solar cell = ambient, solar cell = ambient +
20 C, and solar cell = ambient + 40 C. (Later, we will calculate more accurate temperature
models for a module).

3. Light trapping model: The light trapping model in PC1D assumes that light is normally
incident on the solar cell. The goal of this problem is to determine and justify an estimate of
how the properties of light trapping changes as the angle changes. As the impact of light
trapping is most easily seen in thin solar cells, optimize the solar cell at normal incidence for
a thin solar cell (< 150 um) with well passivated surfaces.

4. Calculate the energy over a year from a group of solar cell interconnected which have a
Gaussian distribution of shunt resistance, contact resistance, surface recombination and
minority carrier lifetime.

5. Calculate an optimal AR coating using silicon nitride, and calculate the angle-dependant
reflection of the solar cell. You will need to decide if the surface is textured or rought, and
what this implies in the type of silicon material the solar cell uses.



EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication Project 2: Solar Cell Design Page 4 of 4
EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication EEE 598: Fundamentals of Solar Cell Design and Fabrication
Dept. Dept. Dept. Dept. of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University
Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2 Fall 2010: Project #2: Solar : Solar : Solar : Solar Cell Design Cell Design Cell Design Cell Design
Final Project Evaluation Matrix

Instructions:
Please fill in the following evaluation matrix for members of your final project team.

Please do not collaborate on filling this in with other members of the
team. This should be done individually and anonymously for each team
member. The results will be held in confidence.

If you do not wish to hand this sheet in, feel free to come and discuss. However, you must provide
this feedback in some manner.

Please rate the contributions of each team member in the following categories. Assign a score out of
10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.

Effort: Did each team member make a significant effort in contributing to the project?

Completion of Agreed Tasks: Did each team member finish, in the time frame discussed, the task
agreed on by the team?

Contribution to project: To what extent did each team member make intellectual, organizational or
other important contributions to the project?

Participation: Did each team member participate in the project eg, coming to meetings, setting
organizational goals, participation in technical tasks, etc.


Team Member Effort Completion of
Agreed Tasks
Contribution
to Project
Participation Comments