Created in COMSOL Multiphysics 6.

Si Solar Cell with Ray Optics

This Application is licensed under the COMSOL Application License 6.0.

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About the Si Solar Cell with Ray Optics App
This application shows how a basic silicon solar cell structure performs under realistic solar
irradiance.

Using the position of the sun at a given location and date, it is possible to find a rough
estimate of the sunlight properties of solar irradiance under a clear sky.

In addition to the sunlight properties, the application visualizes the effect of the structure,
position, temperature, and parasitic resistances of the cell on the characteristic outputs of
the device (I-V and P-V curves).

To use the application, enter the desired Sunlight Properties, then select the Irradiance
defined from the combo box. Then, switch to the Cell Properties tab and enter the cell
parameters. It is possible to get the sunlight properties by clicking the Sunlight button in
the Simulation section of the ribbon. From there, both irradiance models are available for
computation. Note that the Cell results are only available after the Cell button has been
pressed. Once the model has been computed, a variety of cell-related results are displayed.
The Hour of the Day combo box visualizes how the main output characteristics vary over
time. The Show Definitions button shows a graphical description of these output
characteristic values. The Information section shows if the solution exists, if parameters have
changed, or if there is no solution stored in the application file. The Results ribbon section
allows different results to be plotted.

2 | SI SOLAR CELL WITH RAY OPTICS

 Reset Run Visualize Create Open
input simulations results report documentation

Inputs

Information

Sunlight
results

Cell
results

The user interface of the Si Solar Cell with Ray Optics application.

The Embedded Model

The model consists of a 1D silicon PN junction with carrier generation and
Shockley-Read-Hall recombination. The grounded anode is modeled as a thin ohmic
contact deposited on the emitter (n-doped region). Similarly, the cathode is modeled as an
ideal ohmic contact deposited on the base side (p-doped region) and connected to an
external circuit containing the load and parasitic resistances (Rseries and Rshunt).

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The cathode voltage is obtained by solving the circuit equation

V c = IR eq (1)

where Vc is the cathode voltage and the equivalent resistance Req is defined by

–1
R eq =  ------------- + --------------- + R series
1 1
(2)
 R load R shunt

We assume that the transparent anode (emitter side) has a perfect antireflecting coating,
that is, with reflectance R(λ) equal to 1.

The Ray Optics interface is used to obtain the sun’s position and spectral irradiance. The
latter is used to define the generation rate, that is,
∞

G( z) =  α ( λ ) ( 1 – R ( λ ) )φ ( λ ) exp ( –iα ( λ )z ) dλ (3)

0

where α(λ) is the absorption coefficient defined by

4πκ ( λ )
α ( λ ) = ------------------- (4)
λ

where κ(λ) is the imaginary part of the refractive index and φ(λ) is the photon generation
rate defined by

λ
φ ( λ ) = ------ F ( λ ) (5)
hc

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where F(λ) is the spectral irradiance (here approximated by the blackbody spectrum of the
sun at temperature Tsun = 5777 K)

2
2πhc
F ( λ ) = ----------------------------------------------------------- (6)
λ exp ---------------------- – 1
5  hc
  k B λT sun 

The absorption of light in the device is modeled using tabulated data of the refractive index
for silicon as a function of the wavelength of the incident light and the cell’s temperature
(uniform over the cell structure).

Here, we assume that the characteristic output of the cell is proportional to the incident
light power density (irradiance). Accordingly, we solve the 1D problem only once using a
reference irradiance of H0 = 1353 W/m2. We then multiply the output (current and
power) given by the model by a multiplication factor that depends on the cell orientation
and position of the sun at a given location and time of day.

RESULTS

Sun’s position The calculation of the sun position is obtained using the Ray Optics
Module. The direction of sunlight is automatically computed from the latitude, longitude,
time zone, and time. The zenith angle θ and azimuth angle ϕ of the sun are converted into
a direction vector in Cartesian coordinates, assuming that the north, west, and vertical
directions correspond to the x, y, and z directions, respectively, in the model.

Air mass The air mass is the path length that light takes through the atmosphere
normalized to the shortest possible path length. Taking account of the curvature of the
earth, the air mass is defined as

1
AM = -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
– 1.6364
(7)
cos ( θ ) + 0.50572 ( 96.07995 – θ )

where θ is the zenith angle (see Ref. 1). Note that θ is defined in the range (-π/2, π/2).

Angle of incidence The angle of incidence is defined as the projection of the cell’s unit
normal vector on the solar unit vector direction, that is,

Θ i = acos ( n c ⋅ n s ) (8)

where nc is the cell unit vector and ns is the solar unit vector direction. The components
of these vectors can be expressed in terms of the zenith and azimuth angle. For instance,
the solar unit vector is expressed componentwise by

5 | SI SOLAR CELL WITH RAY OPTICS

 n sx = – cos ( ϕ ) sin ( θ ) (9)
n sy = sin ( ϕ ) cos ( θ )
n sz = – cos ( θ )

Direct radiation The intensity of the direct component of sunlight throughout each day
can be determined with two different models:

• Outside of Earth’s atmosphere (based on the distance from the sun)

• At Earth’s surface from the air mass model (see Ref. 1)

In the distance model, the sun is modeled as a spherical blackbody at temperature Tsun =
5777 K. The solar irradiance at distance D from the spherical source of radius Rsun is
calculated using the ratio of surfaces

2
R sun
Hd = -------------
2
- H sun cos ( Θ i ) (10)
D

where Hsun is obtained from Stefan-Boltzmann’s blackbody equation, that is,

4
H sun = σT sun (11)

where σ = 5.670373·10−8 W/(m2·K4) is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant.

For the air mass model, the direct intensity as a function of air mass is obtained from the
experimentally determined equation
0.678
AM
H d = H 0 ( ( 1 – 0.14h )0.7 + 0.14h ) cos ( Θ i ) (12)

where h is the altitude above sea level.

I-V and P-V curves These curves are obtained by varying Rload from very small values
(replicating short-circuit conditions) to very large values (replicating open-circuit
conditions). From these curves, it is possible to extract Isc, Voc, Pmax, Imp, and Vmp.

Fill factor The fill factor is calculated using the ratio of rectangular areas defined by

I mp V mp
FF = -------------------- (13)
I sc V oc

Efficiency The efficiency of a solar cell is determined as the fraction of incident power that
is converted to electricity and is defined as

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 I sc V oc FF
η = ------------------------ (14)
P in

where

P in = H 0 A (15)

and A is the cell’s exposed area.

Generation per cell for one day This value is obtained by integrating the product of the
efficiency and the incident power over the 24 hour time period of a given day. The result
is in the units of Wh.

Reference
1. The Photovoltaic Education Network, http://pveducation.org.

Application Library path: Semiconductor_Module/Applications/

si_solar_cell_with_ray_optics

7 | SI SOLAR CELL WITH RAY OPTICS