Extraction of the minority carrier transport properties of solar cells using the Hovel model and genetic algorithms

CAPPELLETTI, MARCELO A; CASAS, GUILLERMO A; OLIVERA, LUCAS M; PELTZER Y BLANCÁ, EITEL L; CÉDOLA, ARIEL P; OSIO, JORGE R

MEASUREMENT SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (PRINT)

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Año: 2020 vol. 31 p. 1 - 9

0957-0233

In this paper, a quick and accurate method for extraction of the minority carrier transportproperties of p-n or n-p junction solar cells, such as diffusion lengths and surfacerecombination velocities, is presented. The knowledge of these parameters is essential toinvestigating factors that limit the performance of photovoltaic devices. The proposed method,based on genetic algorithms and the analytical Hovel model, is used to fit the external quantumefficiency (EQE) curves of solar cells with different emitter thicknesses. As a demonstrativeexample of application of the procedure carried out in this work, theoretical and experimentalEQE curves of n-p GaAs solar cells under the standard AM1.5G spectrum have been usedin order to extract the desired parameters. Errors less than 2.4% have been obtained, whichshows the capability of the developed tool. An analysis of the total number of iterationsis presented. The results obtained can be used to improve the design, optimization, andmanufacturing process of high-efficiency photovoltaic devices.