How the absorber thickness influences the formation of reverse bias induced defects in CIGS solar cells

Klaas Bakker, Alix Rasia, Suzanne Assen, Basma Ben Said Aflouat, Arthur Weeber, Mirjam Theelen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)
47 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

When a PV module is partially shaded, the shaded solar cells operate in a reverse bias condition. For Cu(In,Ga)Se2 cells this condition can cause defects that irreversibly reduce the output of these cells and the full module. In order to design robust shade-tolerant CIGS modules details need to be known of the conditions at which these defects will be formed. In this study a large number of cells were exposed to different reverse bias conditions. By using simple statistics the probability of the occurrence of defects as a result of reverse bias at any given voltage has been determined. Based on our experiments we have found that the absorber thickness is one of the main parameters that affects the shade-tolerance: the thicker the absorber, the more shade tolerant the CIGS module will be.

Original languageEnglish
Article number9
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalEPJ Photovoltaics
Volume11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • CIGS
  • Partial shading
  • Reliability
  • Reverse bias
  • Wormlike defects

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