A. Gabor, R. Janoch, A. Anselmo, Jason Lincoln, H. Seigneur, C. Honeker
{"title":"Mechanical load testing of solar panels — Beyond certification testing","authors":"A. Gabor, R. Janoch, A. Anselmo, Jason Lincoln, H. Seigneur, C. Honeker","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750338","url":null,"abstract":"Mechanical load tests are a commonly-performed stress test where pressure is applied to the front and back sides of solar panels. In this paper we review the motivation for load tests and the different ways of performing them. We then discuss emerging durability concerns and ways in which the load tests can be modified and/or enhanced by combining them with other characterization methods. In particular, we present data from a new tool where the loads are applied by using vacuum and air pressure from the rear side of the panels, thus leaving the front side available for EL and IV characterization with the panels in the bent state. Tightly closed cracks in the cells can be temporarily opened by such a test, thus enabling a prediction of panel degradation in the field were these cracks to open up over time. Based on this predictive crack opening test, we introduce the concept of using a quick load test on each panel in the factory as a quality control tool and potentially as a type of burn-in test to initiate cracks that would certainly form early on during a panel's field life. We examine the stresses seen by the cells under panel load through Finite Element Modeling and demonstrate the importance of constraining the panel motion during testing as it will be constrained when mounted in the field.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"18 1","pages":"3574-3579"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82780053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Lumb, M. Meitl, K. Schmieder, M. González, S. Mack, M. Yakes, M. Bennett, J. Frantz, M. Steiner, J. Geisz, D. Friedman, M. Slocum, S. Hubbard, Brent Fisher, S. Burroughs, R. Walters
{"title":"Towards the ultimate multi-junction solar cell using transfer printing","authors":"M. Lumb, M. Meitl, K. Schmieder, M. González, S. Mack, M. Yakes, M. Bennett, J. Frantz, M. Steiner, J. Geisz, D. Friedman, M. Slocum, S. Hubbard, Brent Fisher, S. Burroughs, R. Walters","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749405","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749405","url":null,"abstract":"Transfer printing is a uniquely enabling technology for the heterogeneous integration of III-V materials grown on dissimilar substrates. In this paper, we present experimental results for a mechanically stacked tandem cell using GaAs and GaSb-based materials capable of harvesting the entire solar spectrum with 44.5% efficiency. We also present the latest results toward developing an ultra-high performance heterogeneous cell, integrating materials grown on GaAs, InP and GaSb platforms.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"110 1","pages":"0040-0045"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89324935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Real time arc fault detection in PV systems using wavelet decomposition","authors":"H. Zhu, Zhan Wang, R. Balog","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749926","url":null,"abstract":"Reliable arc fault detection is crucial for the safe operation of photovoltaic (PV) system. Fourier transform methods have been previously used to detect arcing by examining the frequency characteristics of the PV voltage or current but are not well suited because arcs are chaotic, not periodic and not stationary. In contract, wavelet-based transforms are well suited because the technique does not assume periodicity and is adept at detecting discontinuities in the signal. This paper reports on results from the development of a real time arc fault detection technique that was built as a wavelet decomposition based arc detector using a TI C2000 platform DSP. The arc fault detector was tested on a composite arc signal constructed from recordings of real-world inverter noise and real-world arc events replayed through a high-fidelity test bed to compare the ability to differentiate inverter only and inverter plus arcing signals. The results demonstrate that the wavelet decomposition and arc discrimination algorithms can be implemented in real-time on a low-cost DSP.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"473 1","pages":"1761-1766"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86734426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
K. Wright, T. Schneider, J. Vaughn, B. Hoang, F. Wong, Gordon Wu
{"title":"Bypass diode temperature tests of a solar array coupon under space thermal environment conditions","authors":"K. Wright, T. Schneider, J. Vaughn, B. Hoang, F. Wong, Gordon Wu","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750123","url":null,"abstract":"Tests were performed on a 56-cell Advanced Triple Junction solar array coupon whose purpose was to determine margin available for bypass diodes integrated with new, large multi-junction solar cells that are manufactured from a 4-inch wafer. The tests were performed under high vacuum with coupon back side thermal conditions of both cold and ambient. The bypass diodes were subjected to a sequence of increasing discrete current steps from 0 A to 2.0 A in steps of 0.25 A. At each current step, a temperature measurement was obtained via remote viewing by an infrared camera. This paper discusses the experimental methodology, experiment results, and the thermal model.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"17 1","pages":"2619-2624"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86638407","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Dutta, M. Rathi, Ying Gao, Yao Yao, D. Khatiwada, M. T. Desessarts, A. Khadimallah, N. Zheng, P. Ahrenkiel, V. Selvamanickam
{"title":"InP thin films with single-crystalline-like properties on flexible metal substrates for photovoltaic application","authors":"P. Dutta, M. Rathi, Ying Gao, Yao Yao, D. Khatiwada, M. T. Desessarts, A. Khadimallah, N. Zheng, P. Ahrenkiel, V. Selvamanickam","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749950","url":null,"abstract":"We demonstrate heteroepitaxial growth of single-crystalline-like InP thin films by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on low-cost flexible metal foils. The epitaxy was enabled by a multilayer oxide buffer made using ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). The InP films were biaxially textured with sharp in-plane texture and exhibited strong (002) preferential out-of-plane orientation. Strong room-temperature photoluminescence was also observed with band gap of ~ 1.27 eV. Electron mobility of > 700 cm2/V-s at a carrier concentration of 5 × 1017 cm-3 was obtained. High quality single crystalline-like InP films on low-cost metal substrates may potentially be used in the fabrication of inexpensive flexible InP solar cells.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"19 1","pages":"1892-1894"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87429322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Universal linear relationship on two-step photon absorption processes in In(Ga)As quantum dot solar cells","authors":"R. Tamaki, Y. Shoji, T. Sugaya, Y. Okada","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749396","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749396","url":null,"abstract":"Appropriate photo-carrier confinement in quantized levels is indispensable to achieve efficient two-step photon absorption in quantum dot intermediate band solar cells (QD-IBSCs). In this paper, host materials with varied bandgap energy were systematically investigated on In(Ga)As QDSCs. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) photocurrent spectroscopy revealed that the IR absorption edge and the threshold temperature of two-step photon absorption processes in series of In(Ga)As QDSCs indicated a “universal linear relationship.” The threshold temperature at 295 K was predicted with the absorption edge at 0.459 eV by extrapolating the universal relationship. It proposed strategy for cell optimization to realize efficient two-step photon absorption at ambient conditions.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"19 1","pages":"0001-0004"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76929722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Hussain, G. Kwon, H. Park, Shihyun Ahn, Sunbo Kim, Anh Huy Tuan Le, N. Balaji, J. Yi
{"title":"Light scattering through multi-textured periodic glass surface morphologies for a-Si thin film solar cells","authors":"S. Hussain, G. Kwon, H. Park, Shihyun Ahn, Sunbo Kim, Anh Huy Tuan Le, N. Balaji, J. Yi","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750355","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750355","url":null,"abstract":"Front transparent conductive oxide (TCO) films play a vital role in amorphous silicon based thin film solar cells due to their high transparency, conductivity and excellent light scattering properties. The precise surface morphology with better step coverage for the front TCO films is a hot research topic now a days. Since the low step coverage of TCO films suffered non uniformity and hence low performance of amorphous silicon thin film solar cells (a-Si TFSCs). We report novel multi-textured periodic textured glass surface morphologies with high transmittance and better step coverage of AZO films for the a-Si TFSCs. The SF6/Ar plasma etching of glass substrates was used for the high roughness and haze ratio while wet (Buffered Hydro Fluoric acid (BHF)) chemical etching was performed for the better step coverage by controlling the shape of textured glass surface morphology. The pyramid shaped textured glass surface morphologies offered the lowest sheet resistance, high transmittance and roughness for the RF magnetron sputtered AZO films. The AZO films showed the highest total transmittance and haze ratio of 90.19% and 54.29% in the visible wavelength region with lowest sheet resistance of 6.242 Ω/□ for 800 nm thickness. The AZO films deposited on the pyramid glass surface showed the better step coverage. The minor variation in sheet resistance and resistivity of the AZO films was related to the step coverage of the AZO films that is closely related with the shape and angle of the surface morphology. The AZO films with low sheet resistance, high transmittance and step coverage can be employed to improve the performance of future a-Si thin film solar cells.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"134 1","pages":"3651-3654"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83750906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Operando XPS characterization of selective contacts: The case of molybdenum oxide for crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells","authors":"L. Ding, S. Harvey, G. Teeter, M. Bertoni","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750330","url":null,"abstract":"We demonstrate the potential of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to characterize new carrier-selective contacts (CSC) for solar cell application. We show that XPS not only provides information about the surface chemical properties of the CSC material, but that operando XPS, i.e. under light bias condition, can also directly measure the photovoltage that develops at the CSC/absorber interface, revealing device relevant information without the need of assembling a full solar cell. We present the application of the technique to molybdenum oxide hole-selective contact films on a crystalline silicon absorber.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"76 1","pages":"3543-3546"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86146215","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Faruk Ballipinar, A. Rastogi, S. Garner, S. Darling
{"title":"Planar mixed halide perovskite-PCBM solar cells on flexible glass substrates processed at low temperature without ITO","authors":"Faruk Ballipinar, A. Rastogi, S. Garner, S. Darling","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7749893","url":null,"abstract":"Thin film mixed halide perovskite absorber solar cells in a planar device structure are fabricated on a flexible glass substrate. A low temperature solution process is described in which instead of indium tin oxide on flexible glass, a transparent conductive PEDOT:PSS electrode of high electrical conductivity formed by formic acid treatment is effectively used. The photon harvesting strategy uses back surface reflection to enhance photoabsorption in the perovskite. Power conversion efficiency is 5.12±0.08% for rigid glass and 4.37±0.03% for flexible glass substrates. Perovskite solar cells fabricated on flexible glass exhibit mechanical flexibility under repeated bending while maintaining device performance.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"2014 1","pages":"1611-1616"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88202335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
D. B. Needleman, H. Wagner, P. Altermatt, Z. Xiong, P. Verlinden, T. Buonassisi
{"title":"Characterizing and evaluating the impact of dislocations and grain boundaries on silicon solar cells","authors":"D. B. Needleman, H. Wagner, P. Altermatt, Z. Xiong, P. Verlinden, T. Buonassisi","doi":"10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2016.7750329","url":null,"abstract":"High efficiency and low-cost, low-capex silicon substrates are necessary for the PV industry to grow to meet climate-driven deployment targets. The efficiency gap between the best devices using low-cost, low-capex substrates and monocrystalline silicon produced by the Czochralski method (CZ-Si) have shrunk recently. Here, we present numerical device simulations that show that current crystal growth, phosphorus diffusion gettering, and hydrogen passivation can produce low-cost, low-capex silicon with an efficiency potential well over 20%. We further show that incorporating these materials into higher efficiency architectures that operate at higher injection is likely to further improve their performance.","PeriodicalId":6524,"journal":{"name":"2016 IEEE 43rd Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)","volume":"78 1","pages":"3538-3542"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2016-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88565502","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}