Development of an analytical tool to design photovoltaic solar cells: Analysis in outer space conditions

Abstract

Various well established solar cell simulation software are presently available; however, they are often closed source, requiring costly licenses, or general-purpose simulation software. The main objective of this work is the development of an analytical tool to model and simulate solar cells, with particular emphasis in space applications. The software was constructed in Python using object-oriented programming by applying the equivalent two-diode electrical model, semiconductor physics, and optical modeling. It was designed to simulate both single- and multi-junction solar cells with additional non-textured anti-reflective coatings and protective layers. A method was also implemented to simulate the effects of ionizing radiation. The program was validated by data comparison with established software and commercially available space solar cells. In both cases, the tool developed was found to have obtained similar results, which seem to indicate that the program is reasonably accurate. Furthermore, three studies were carried out on: Anti-reflection coatings and protective layers, Ionizing-radiation effects and Multi-junction solar cells. In the anti-reflection coatings and protective layers study, it was possible to verify how differences in the type and number of layers affect performance. With the ionizing radiation effects study, the accuracy of the model was tested against research article data. The multi-junction study has shown how important the appropriate selection of semiconductor material, doping, and thickness is to mitigate losses and improve cell performance.