A Report of Internship At Malaviya National Institute of

Technology Jaipur
Submitted By:

Name : Jaideep Singh Rathore , Ashish Tanwar

Branch: Electronics and Communication Engineering
Enroll : 2020BECE021, 2020BECE088
Topic : Solar cell basic simulation(CdTe).

Department Of Electronics and Communication National

Institute of Technology Srinagar
Under the Guidance of Dr. Menka Yadav,Assistant
Professor, ECE Dept,MNIT Jaipur
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
“It is not possible to prepare a internship report without the
assistance & Encouragement of other people . This one is
certainly no exception .”

On the very outset of this report, I would like to extend my sincere &
heartfelt obligation towards all the personage who have helped me
in this endeavour .
Without their active guidance , help cooperation & encouragement ,
I would not have made headway in the project. I am ineffably
indebted to Dr. Menka Yadav for conscience guidance and
encouragement to accomplish this assignment .
I also acknowledge with a deep sense of reverence , my gratitude
towards my Parents and member of my family , who has always
supported me morally as well as economically.
At last but not least gratitude goes to all of my friends who directly
or indirectly helped me to complete this project report. Any omission
in this brief acknowledgement does not mean lack of gratitude .
Thanking You
Jaideep Singh Rathore
1. About Topic
Solar energy, radiation from the sun capable of producing heat, causing
chemical reactions , or generating electricity. The total amount of solar energy
incident on Earth is vastly in excess of the world’s current and anticipated
energy requirements . If suitable harnessed , this highly diffused source has
the potential to satisfy all future energy needs.

The Sun is an extremely powerful energy source, and sunlight is by far the
largest source of energy received by Earth, but its intensity at Earth’s surface is
actually quite low. This is essentially because of the enormous radial spreading
of radiation from the distant Sun. A relatively minor additional loss is due to
Earth’s atmosphere and clouds, which absorb or scatter as much as 54 percent
of the incoming sunlight. The sunlight that reaches the ground consists of
nearly 50 percent visible light, 45 percent infrared radiation, and smaller
amounts of ultraviolet and other forms of electromagnetic radiation.
The potential for solar energy is enormous, since about 200,000 times the world’s
total daily electric-generating capacity is received by Earth every day in the form
of solar energy. Unfortunately, though solar energy itself is free, the high cost of
its collection, conversion, and storage still limits its exploitation in many places.

2.Electricity Generation
Solar radiation may be converted directly into electricity by solar cells . In such
cells, a small electric voltage is generated when light strikes the junction
between a metal and a semiconductor (such as silicon) or the junction
between two different semiconductors. The power generated by a single
photovoltaic cell is typically only about two watts. By connecting large
numbers of individual cells together, however, as in solar-panel arrays,
hundreds or even thousands of kilowatts of electric power can be generated in
a solar electric plant or in a large household array. The energy efficiency of
most present-day photovoltaic cells is only about 15 to 20 percent, and, since
the intensity of solar radiation is low to begin with, large and costly assemblies
of such cells are required to produce even moderate amounts of power.

Small photovoltaic cells that operate on sunlight or artificial light have found
major use in low-power applications—as power sources
for calculators and watches, for example. Larger units have been used to
provide power for water pumps and communications systems in remote areas
and for weather and communications satellites. Classic
crystalline silicon panels and emerging technologies using thin-film solar cells,
including building integrated photovoltaics, can be installed by homeowners
and businesses on their rooftops to replace or augment the conventional
electric supply.
 3.

3.1 First Generation Solar Cell :

There are three basic generations of solar cells, though one of them
doesn't quite exist yet, and research is ongoing. They are designated
as first, second, and third, and differ according to their cost and
efficiency.

The first generation are high-cost, high-efficiency. These solar cells

are manufactured in a fashion similar to computers, involving
extremely pure silicon, use a single junction for extracting energy
from photons, and are very efficient, approaching their theoretical
efficiency maximum of 33%. In 2007, first generation products
accounted for 89.6% of commercial production, though the market
share has declined since. The manufacturing processes that are used
to produce them are inherently expensive, meaning that these cells
may take years to pay for their purchasing costs. It is not thought
that first generation cells will be able to provide energy more cost
effective than fossil fuel sources.

3.2 The Second Generation:

It has been under intense development during the 1990s and early
2000s, are low-cost, low-efficiency cells. These are most frequently
thin film solar cells, designs that use minimal materials and cheap
manufacturing processes. The most popular materials used for this
type are copper indium gallium selenide, cadmium telluride
(CdTe), amorphous silicon, and micro amorphous silicon.

A standard example of second generation cells would be those made

by Nanosolar, which uses a special machine to print the cells at an
extremely fast rate. Though these cells have only 10-15% conversion
efficiency, the decreased cost more than makes up for this deficit.
Second generation cells have the potential to be more cost effective
than fossil fuel.

3.3 The Third Generation :

Third generation solar cells are just a research target and do not
really exist yet. The goal of solar energy research is to produce low-
cost, high efficiency cells. This is likely to be thin-film cells that use
novel approaches to obtain efficiencies in the range of 30-60%. Some
analysts predict that third generation cells could start to be
commercialized sometime around 2020, but this is just a guess.
Technologies associated with third generation products include
multijunction photovoltaic cells, tandem cells, nanostructured cells
to better pick up incident light, and using excess thermal generation
to enhance voltages or carrier collection.
4. CdTe Solar cells :
 The CdTe film acts as the primary photoconversion layer and
absorbs most visible light within the first micron of material.
… Together, the CdTe, intermediate, and TCO layers form an
electric field that converts light absorbed in the CdTe layer
into current and voltage.
 The most common CdTe solar cells consist of a p-n
heterojunction structure containing a p-doped CdTe layer
matched with an n-doped cadmium sulfide (CdS) or
magnesium zinc oxide (MZO) window layer. Typical CdTe thin-
film deposition techniques include vapor-transport deposition
and close-spaced sublimation.

4.1 The benefits of CdTe thin-film solar cells include:

 High absorption: Cadmium telluride is a direct-bandgap
material with bandgap energy that can be tuned from 1.4 to 1.5
(eV), which is nearly optimal for converting sunlight into
electricity using a single junction.
 Low-cost manufacturing: Cadmium telluride solar cells use high
throughput manufacturing methods to produce completed
modules from input materials in a matter of hours.
 Solar Cell Simulation
Prerequisite:-
1. SCAPS 1D -
SCAPS (a Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator) is a
one-dimensional solar cell simulation program.
SCAPS is a 1-dimensional simulation software which calculates
energy bands, current-voltage characteristics and spectral
response (Quantum Efficiency) by solving continuity equations
for electron and hole and Poisson's equation.
 Types of panel-There three different panels in Scaps 1-D
simulation software namely Action panel, Definition panel,
Output panel.
 Action panel – In this panel we provides values for the
simulation range in voltage currents etc and select the
curves to be displayed at output panel.
 Definition panel – This panel is used to provide
characteristics to our layers in cell eg. Thickness, doping,
and defects.
 Output panel – As per the values given in the last two
panels we can obtain our resultant graphs in this panel and
observe them with a close watch.
Title :- Temperature vs Voc simulation for solar cell(CdTe).
Software used - SCAPS-1D
Disscussion- To simulate Voc vs temperature plot first we choose
CdTe base material in Scaps . We give voltage ranges 0 to 1.5 and
set temperature ranges between 200K to 500K in batch setup .
Simulation process and setup is given below –
Solar Cell Action Panel :

Solar Cell Definition Panel :

Solar Cell Output Panel :

Observations – Here ,we observe that the slop of graph changes in
500K -300K ,300K-250K, 250K-200K temperature and whole curve
does not makes the tangent .So Voc is saturating out. The reason for
Voc saturating out is may be the presence of secondary junction
instead of p-n junction and interface defect.

 Title :- Carrier Density Optimization of Solar

Cells(CdTe).

Discussion- Carrier concentration and carrier density is an

important parameter which is also doping. So it is like acceptor
density in p-type layer and doner density in n-type layer These
will control the whole working of device.
We take two layer with same carrier density of n-type and p-type,
we also give interface defect to p-n junction as per below :-
Action Panel :

Definition Panel :
Characteristics of Layers:
First screenshot is for the case when we are taking p type density
higher than the n type and second one is for the case when we are
taking n type density higher than the p type density .

Energy Bands Panel :

Output Panel :
First Screenshot for the case of equal doping density of p and n
type Second for the case where doping level of p type is kept
higher and third where we kept the n type doping density higher .

Observation :
Firstly we observe the efficiency by keeping the p type and n type
same doping level and then observe the I-V curve and efficiency
In second case we increase p type doping level by keeping the same
n type doping as in previous case and we observe that I-V curve is
reduced and so is the efficiency here in our case is just got half of the
first case .
In third case we keep the p type doping same whereas we increase n
type doping and we observe that there is huge gap between
efficiencies in previous cases here it’s almost three times the first
case
The possible explainable reason for the above observation could be
that recombination of holes and electrons is taking place between
layers, when the p type density is higher , and when the n type
density is higher the recombination can’t take place between
electrons and electrons.

 Title :- SCAPS Simulation of Illumination Dependence of

Efficiency/Voc.
Discussion : We are trying to locate the relation between the
illumination intensity and the Voc of solar cell , as by theory
we already know that the Voc increases as the illumination
intensity increases .
 Action Panel:

Automation of illumination intensity :

Output Panel:
Observation :The output graphs clearly depicts that as the illumination
intensity is increasing the value of Voc is also increasing linearly, As the
light intensity decreases, the bias point and current through the solar cell
also decreases, and the equivalent resistance of the solar cell may begin to
approach the shunt resistance. When these two resistances are similar, the
fraction of the total current flowing through the shunt resistance increases,
thereby increasing the fractional power loss due to resistance.
Title:- Solar Cell efficiency optimisation in SCAPS.
Discussion :
In this simulation our target is to find relation between the fill
factor, efficiency and the hole density at p type region by adding a
layer . theoretically as we increase hole density efficiency and fill
factor should also increase.

Action Panel:

Layers :
Layer Characteristics :
Output Panel :

In the output graph pink one is without the additional layer while
blue graph is after an p type additional intrinsic layer is added.
Observation :
We observe a minute increase in efficiency and fill factor after the
addition of p type layer from 4.58% to 4.66% in efficiency and from
55.37% to 56.84% in fill factor.

References:
 NCERT physics , for the basic concepts of diodes.
 S Ashok {https://www.britannica.com/science/solar-energy } ,for the
extended reading on intro part .
 Michael Anissimov { https://www.thesolarpanelguide.com/what-are-
the-different-generations-of-solar-cells.htm }, for the concepts of
CdTe solar cell.
 Photovoltaic Research YouTube channel for the Scaps basics.