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A distributed SPICE-model of a solar cell

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DOI: 10.1109/16.491244 · Source: IEEE Xplore

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 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5 , MAY 1996 69 1

A Distributed SPICE-Model of a Solar Cell

Abdelhalim Zekry and Abdulhameed Yousef Al-Mazroo, Member, IEEE

Abstract-In this paper, a distributed SPICE-model for a solar the solar cell area. For instance, in the dark case, the junction
cell is worked out. Special attention is paid to the problems voltage decreases as one moves away from the edge of a
of nonhomogeneous current distribution and the effective series metallization finger. It reaches its minimum value midway
resistance. Elaborate experimental techniques have been used to
determine the model parameters. They are based on the I-V between two adjacent fingers. This voltage drop is caused
characteristics, the small signal impedance, and the open-circuit by the forced horizontal flow of cell current in the relatively
voltage decay measurements. The SPICE simulation results are high resistance top layer. Accordingly, the current density
compared with the measured static and dynamic characteristics decreases as the distance from the metallization edge increases
of a solar cell. We found satisfactory agreement concerning
reaching a minimum value midway between the fingers. But
the static characteristics* whereas there is discrepancy in the
dynamic characteristics. This is because the SPICE-model of a the changes in the current density J is much greater than the
p - n junction diode contains only one time constant. It is found changes in the junction voltage V, since the current density
that two time constants are necessary for accurate description J depends exponentially on the junction voltage according to
of the dynamic performance. The techniques and methodologies the law of the junction. Under illumination if the solar cell
developed here are applicable to other junction diodes operating is short circuited the junction voltage increases away from
at high frequencies or under transient conditions.
metallization edge because of the series resistance. It reaches
maximum value midway between the fingers.
I. INTRODUCTION Consequently, a part of the photo current will be lost as a
dark current in the junction. Since the photo-generation process
I N the solar cell literature [l], [ 2 ] , a lumped circuit model
is normally used to describe the terminal electrical perfor-
mance of solar cells. Because of the partial metallization of
is homogeneous, the net collected current decreases away from
the metallization edge. Here again, any small change in the
junction V, leads to a larger one in the dark current. The
the front surface in solar cells to receive the incident solar
radiation, the cell current flows laterally in thin top layer of general case is the superposition of the previous two cases
where the solar cell is illuminated and has certain terminal
the cell. Since the current is distributed throughout the cell,
the lateral IR drop increases with increasing distance from output voltage V ( o ) according to the load value. Since the
the metallization edge. Consequently, the junction voltage also photocurrent makes V, to increase and V ( o ) makes it to
decreases leading to edge crowding of the cell current. This decrease, it is expected that the two effects, at least partially,
compensate each other resulting in a weaker dependence of
effect can badly be modeled by a one lumped series resistance.
Now, such simplification of the reality is not necessary because V, on position for the solar mode of operation.
Consequently, a distributed model rather than a lumped
of the presence of powerful circuit simulators such as SPICE.
A more accurate model is useful for both understanding the one must be basically used to more accurately describe the
internal electronic processes in the solar cell itself [ 3 ] and for electrical behavior of a solar cell and to see how massive is the
current crowding process under different operating conditions.
photovoltaic array applications [4]. Consequently, our purpose
In principle, the solar cell is divided into identical segments
is to develop a distributed SPICE-model for a solar cell.
in which the current distribution is the same. A segment is
Experimental techniques will be presented to determine the
model parameters. Comparison between SPICE simulation enclosed within dashed lines in Fig. l(a). It comprises the cell
area from the center line of a metallization finger to the line
results and the measurement results will be presented.
half way to the neighboring finger. The number of segments
n, amounts to 2 n f , where n f is the number of fingers. All
11. DISTRIBUTED MODELOF A SOLAR CELL these segments are connected in parallel. The problem now is
A conventional solar cell geometry is shown schematically reduced to the modeling of the segment itself. Therefore, each
in Fig. l(a). The front electrode consists of a metallic grid segment is divided into sufficiently enough small sections.
with a main collecting busbar. The active device itself is From the principle point of view, as the number of sections
an nf-p junction supplied by an ohmic metallic contact at or elements ne increases the accuracy will be improved to a
the back side and an antireflection coating at the front side. certain limit determined by the approximations made in the
Because of the partial metallization of the front surface the mathematical processing. In each section the current density
solar cell current is nonhomogeneously distributed throughout can be considered constant with its average value. Conse-
quently, it can be modeled with the equivalent circuit shown in
Manuscript received December 22, 1994; revised July 24, 1995. The review Fig. l(b) where the photocurrent &he represents the generated
of this paper was arranged by Editor P. K. Bhattacharya. photocurrent in the eth section, De the junction diode, R,, the
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, College of
Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia. shunting resistance, and R,, the series resistance, basically of
Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9383(96)03366-7. the top layer. It must be pointed out that the first section under
0018-9383/96$05.00 0 1996 IEEE
692 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5 , MAY 1996

*P

\
Fig 1 (a) A conventional solar cell geometry, and (b) a distributed solar cell model for one segment in a solar cell

metallization has no current source and a negligible series
resistance.
This model can be analyzed using SPICE circuit simulator
if the parameters of the circuit components are known. In the
next section we will show how these model parameters can
be determined.
conductivity modulation is negligibly small. The theoretical
values of Rste calculated according to Appendix I are also
plotted in Fig. 3 for sake of comparison with the measured
results. It is interesting to notice that Rste at low currents is
equal to half of the real value of the total series resistance
Rst,, where

OF THE MODELPARAMETERS
111. DETERMINATION
In this. section, methods to determine the static and the e=l
small signal parameters of the model will be presented. SPICE
and R,,, = R,, at low currents.
will be used to calculate the static I-V characteristics and the
For equal sections in the segment all series resistances
small signal impedance of the solar cell. Comparison of the
R,,, are equal and Rsto = (ne- 1)RS,,/2nf. From Fig. 4,
simulation results with the measured results will be carried out
Rsto = 0.3 ohm. The number of segments in the specimen
in order to see how accurate is the distributed model.
is 12 and the number of elements ne is assumed to be 5.
Substituting the above values in (1) one gets R,,, = 0.9 R.
A. Static Characteristics
The intersection of the extrapolated straight-line portion of
I ) Dark Characteristics: From the measured dark I-V char- the log I-V characteristics with the current axis at V = 0
acteristics of the solar cell shown in Fig. 2 we determined the results in the total saturation current Io of the solar cell
ideality factor n of the diodes in the equivalent circuit, the specimen. From Fig. 2 we get
reverse saturation current I,, of any diode D , and values for
the series resistance R,, and for the parallel resistance Rpe. Io = 1.2 x l o p 7 A.
An equivalent total series resistance Rsteof the solar cell is
Since all elements at low currents are approximately equally
determined by dividing the voltage difference AV between
biased, 10will be distributed among the elements in proportion
the measured curve and the extrapolated line shown in Fig. 2
to their respective areas. Therefore
by the solar cell current at this voltage difference. The total
series resistance Rsteas a function of the solar cell current I is
shown in Fig. 3. It is clear from this figure that Rste decreases
with the current I. In previous work [ 6 ] ,the series resistance where A is the cell area and SA is the element area. With
is modeled by a constant resistance independent of the current. SA = 0.066 cm2 and A = 4 cm2, I,, = 2 x lo-' A. The
This can be caused either by conductivity modulation of the slope of the straight line portion of the log1 versus V curve
lightly doped base region or to the current crowding near the results in an ideality factor n = 1.60.
edge of the metallization finger. After estimating the highest The shunt resis-tance Rp is the inverse slope of the I-V
possible injection level in the base it has been found that the characteristics at the origin. Rp amounts to 21 kR for this solar
 ~

ZEKRY AND AL-MAZROO: DISTRIBUTED SPICE-MODEL OF A SOLAR CELL 693

50
40
30
20
10

-
U
E -10
L
c -20
!
2 -30
-'t -40
U

-901
. ""
C e l l voltage ( V I

Fig. 4. Illuminated I-V characteristics of the solar cell specimen.

one has to measure its illuminated I-V characteristics.

The measured I-V characteristics at different illumination
t intensities for test specimen are shown in Fig. 4. The total
lo2 I
,,,
,,,
, photocurrent I,, is equal to the magnitude of the cell current at
0 *1 +2 -3 .4 .5 .6 .7 -8 the flat bottom of the illuminated I-V characteristics in Fig. 4.
v (volt ) The elementary photocurrent l p h e can be found by simply
dividing I p h by the total number of elements 2nf(n, - 1)
Fig. 2. Dark I-V characteristics of a single crystal solar cell specimen

.1 6 I I
v measured
For instance, from curve IV in Fig. 4, I p h = 78 mA. Substi-
- calculated
tuting this value together with 2nf = 12 and ne = 5 in ( 2 )
E 14
-E
I one gets I P h = 1.625 mA.
By inspecting the illuminated I-V characteristics in Fig. 4,
:.12 we notice that there is no regular downward shift of the I-
U
V curves as the light intensity increases. The curves rather
4
3 10
intersect each other. The second remark is the relatively small
open circuit voltage for the highest illumination levels. This
2
H
.Y
is mainly because of the increased cell temperature with
.08 - illumination level. A secondary cause for the intersection of
the I-V curves is the current crowding effect.
E
.06[ I I, I I I . I 1 B. Small Signal Impedance
0.10 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.0
For the sake of completeness, a small signal description
I (A)
of the solar cell is required. This is useful for understanding
Fig. 3. The series resistance Rste as a function of the dark current I. the internal electronic processes underlying the operation of
the solar cell. In principle, the small signal behavior at low
cell. For the elementary solar cells the shunting resistance R,, frequency reflects the static performance of the cell whereas
amounts of 1260 kR. the high frequency small signal behavior reflects the dynamic
2 ) The Illuminated I-V Characteristics: To determine the performance. That is, the small signal parameters sums the
remaining parameters in the circuit model of a solar cell, static and dynamic response. On the other side, that static
694 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5, MAY 1996

characteristics are the steady state asymptote of the dynamic

response. The reverse saturation current and the photocurrent
of the cell is limited by the minority carriers lifetime which is
a dynamic quantity. This means that the static performance is
limited by a dynamic parameter.
A solar power systems is sometimes subject to rapid in-
solation variation during propagation of clouds. More impor-
tant is the loading of the photovoltaic system with switched
capacitive and inductive loads. Certainly, it is required to
study the performance of the system under these transient
conditions. The study can be applied equally well to large
area photodetectors working under rapid signal variations. To
describe the performance of the solar cell as a power device,
its I-V characteristic is necessary but not sufficient.
In order to describe the small signal behavior of the solar
cell it is required only to substitute each elementary diode
in Fig. I(b) by its small signal model. The parameters of
this model are the junction capacitance C,,,, the diffusion
capacitance Cde and the small signal diode conductance gde
[ 2 ] . The corresponding SPICE parameters are the zero-bias Fig. 5. 1/C2 versus reverse voltage V at different frequencies
junction capacitance Cj,,, the built-in voltage of the junction
a, the grading coefficient of the junction m, and the transit
time 7T across the diode base. In the next sections we will
show how these SPICE parameters are extracted from the
small signal impedance measurement.
Plots of l/C& versus V at different frequencies are shown
in Fig. 5. As the frequency increase l/C& slightly decreases
especially at higher reverse voltage. This is due to the decrease
of the shunting resistance with the reverse voltage. At medium
frequencies the effect of R, and Rp is negligible and C, = C,
for this specimen. Since l/C," versus V is a straight line, the
grading coefficient m = 0.5. The extrapolation of the straight
line at medium frequencies results in a built-in voltage = 0.8
V.
The zero bias capacitance C,,, for an elementary diode is
determined from

Fig. 6. Small signal impedance diagram

to be 0.353 nF.
It is now required to accurately determine the transit time
7T and the series resistance. This will be carried out by
measuring the forward impedance as a function of frequency
and biasing. The biasing is considered here as a parameter
because the transit time may depend on the injection level [ 11.
For sufficiently large forward bias of the solar cell such that
C, (< C d , only the diffusion capacitance, the diode small
signal conductance, and the series resistance dominate the
terminal impedance of the solar cell. Assuming that the small
signal parameters c d and gd of the solar cell are independent
of frequency and that the dc cell current is small enough that
the current crowding effect is small, the terminal impedance
diagram takes the form of a circle as shown in Fig. 6.
At certain frequency wc where WCrT = 1 and r d W C d =
W T T , rd = l / w C d . This condition is satisfied on the
impedance diagram at the interception point of the circle
and a straight line with a unity slope and passing through
+
the point ( R , (Rst,/2 R,,) as shown in Fig. 6. Rstois
the total series resistance defined previously and R,, is the
contact resistance.
A vector impedance meter [7] has been developed and
used to accurately measure the relatively low forward bias
impedance of the solar cells.
We measured the impedance of the solar cell at different dc
biasing currents and at different frequencies. Representative
results are plotted in the complex impedance plane d o w n in
Fig. 7. The impedance curve deviates from a semicircle at
relatively high frequencies indicating that both the measured
solar cell capacitance and conductance should depend on
frequency in contrary to the assumption made previously.
Consequently, an effective transit time rz and effective series
resistance can be determined from the impedance diagram.
The values of the effective transit time rz and the effective
series resistance at different biasing currents are given in
Table I.
ZEKRY AND AL-MAZROO: DISTRIBUTED SPICE-MODEL OF A SOLAR CELL 695

20kHZ /

0.0 0.2 0-1 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8
R (SI)
Fig. 7. Impedance diagrams for I = 15 mA.
(a)
Fig. 8. (a) The lumped model of a solar cell. (b) The magnitude of the
TABLE I admittance Y as a function of frequency at a dc cell current I = 5 mA. (c)
THEEFFECTIVE
TRANSIT
TIMEAND SERIES RESISTANCE AT The phase of the admittance versus frequency for dc cell current I = 5 mA.
DC CURRENTS
DIFFERENT DETERMINED BY DIFFERENT METHODS (d) The magnitude of the admittance Y versus frequency for dc cell current
I = 30 mA. (e) The phase of the admittance versus frequency for dc cell
current I = 30 mA.

where G,,(O) is the space charge junction conductance at static

Rn=RJ2+R, 0.75 0.8 0.65 0.5 condition, G,(O) is the conductance of the neutral regions at
zero frequency, lY, I is the magnitude of the admittance of the
neutral region, and 0, is the phase angle of neutral regions
rmD: The open circuit voltage decay lifetime.
admittance Y,. The low frequency small signal conductances
r=: The lifetime in the space charge region determined from admittance fitting. are related to their corresponding current components; i.e.,
rz: The effective lifetime from the impedance diagram.

VT
For more accurate description of the measured terminal Gn(0) = - (10)
Irn
small signal impedance and consequently more accurate values
of the SPICE parameters rT and Rs, we developed a lumped where I,,, and I,, are the dc recombination currents in the
model for the solar cell which takes into consideration the space charge region and neutral regions respectively.
dependance of Cm and gm on frequency. The space charge recombination conductance G,, is inde-
1 ) A More Accurate Model for the Solar Cell: The new pendent of frequency and it has the expression of (9). The
small signal model is shown in Fig. 8(a) where an inductance neutral regions conductance G, depends on frequency and
L must be added in series with a resistance RB and can be written as
the parallel combination of the diode capacitance C, and G, = IY,lcos0. (11)
the junction resistance rp. The addition of a parasitic
inductance is necessary because of the high capacitance of The resistance rp and the capacitance e?, are then given by
the large area solar cell can build with it a resonance circuit. Tp = l/(Gn + G,,(O)) (12)
+
RB = R,t0/2 Reo. The capacitance C, is composed of and
three internal capacitances; the junction capacitance C, which
is independent of frequency, the capacitance of the stored c,= c,+ c,,+ c,. (13)
excess charges in the space charge region C,, which is also From the equivalent circuit of Fig. 8(a) the total series resis-
independent of frequency, and the capacitance of the neutral tance Tt and the total reactance xt of the solar cell can be
regions C, which depends on frequency because of the long expressed by
diffusion path in the neutral regions around the transition
region.
The resistance rp is composed of two parallel resistances; and
the resistance due to recombination in the space charge region wc,rg
T,, and the resistance due to the recombination in the neutral Xt=wL-
region r,. The capacitances can be expressed by the following +
1 (wcprp)2'
relationships: The total admittance IKl and its phase Bt have the form

"t(. + X ,2) -0.5 (16)

and
Bt = - t a n - l ( X , / r t ) . (17)
696 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5 , MAY 1996

A
0.8
E
.e
..c
c
Y

0.6
.c
0
0

c
& 0.4
Eo
2
I-
o .2

0.0
10’ 1o2 lo3 10‘ io5 IO6 ,lo7
The frequency ( H t )
(b)

100
+measured
+simulated
50

0
ca
0
U
v

-50

.c
c
IO0

-1 50
10’ 10 * lo4 10’
The frequency ( H t )
(C)

Fig. 8. (Continued.)

2) Determination of G,,(O) and G,(O): In order to deter-
mine thme conductances the recombination currents I,,, and
I,, must be known. This is achieved by using the equation
I = IosceV/2Vt + IoneV’Vt (I8)
where V- is the voltage on the solar cell. I,,, and I,, are the
reverse saturation currents of I,,, and Irn, respectively. The
first term in (18) is equal to I,,, and the other is equal to I,,.
It i s found that (18) is satisfied with I,,, = 1.09 x lo-’ A
and I,, = 3.193 x A. Then one can calculate I,,, and
Irnat any given voltage V . By substituting these currents in
(9) and (10) one obtains the conductances GSn(0)and G,(O).
The measured admittance and its phase is fitted by (16)
and (17) at different biasing currents and representative fitting
ZEKRY AND AL-MAZROO. DISTRIBUTED SPICE-MODEL OF A SOLAR CELL 691

2
- measured
6 simulated A
1.5
c.
E
I
0
z
c
Y

z
c
0 1
0,

3
T0i
E
r .5
c

40
1.30 mA

20

0
n

t
8g -20
Y

0
x
5 -40
*
I
I-

-60

-80 I , 1 I I .,.,I , I , 1 I , . , I , , , ,,,.I

L I , , , , I , . I I , , ,

10' lo2 lo3 lo4 105 lo6 lo'

The frequency (Hz)
(e)
Fig. 8. (Continued.)

results are shown in Fig. 8(b)-(e). The fitting parameters are + +

given in the insets of the corresponding figures. It is clear
from these figures that the measured and fitted curves coincide
with each other within the experimental errors. In order to
see the contribution of each admittance components on the
overall admittance we plotted the simulation results for the
neutral admittance Yn, the space charge admittance Ysc,and
the total admittance (Y, Y,, q )in Fig. 8(b) where
is the admittance of the junction capacitance. It is clear from
this figure that the contributions of Y,, and Y3 are greater
than Y,. This will be more pronounced at the higher biasing
currents. The total series resistance Rg values determined
from curve fitting are in good agreement with those obtained
from the impedance diagram. The higher series resistance
698
0.7
T=40 k
0.6
0.5
5: 0.4 - 0.4
v
c5 Vi = 0.35 V
1
X
CI
’0.3
0.2 L V1’0.2 v
01
t I I I
0 0.25 0.50 0.75
X (mm)
(a)
Fig. 9. (a) Junction potential distribution in darkness. (b) Potential distribution I*-(z)for an illuminated solar cell with I,,
values determined from the small signal measurement is
because of the high contact resistance value R, added to the
internal series resistance of (RSt,/2).The different values of
the parasitic inductance for the magnitude of the admittance
IYI and its phase attributed to the four point measurement
techniques used here where there is a parasetic inductance
with the cell itself and with the current sensing resistance.
While as T~~ is constant at about 10 ,us, the space charge
lifetime T~~ increases with the biasing current from 1.3 11s to
about 7 ps. In order to confirm the lifetime measurement we
measured the lifetime by using the well-recommended open
circuit voltage decay method. The results are listed in Table I.
We see from this table that 7,c-d is in good agreement with
the transit time from the impedance measurement. Both ?-,C,d
and rz are greater than r,, because they take into consideration
the effect of C, and C,. From the foregoing analysis, it has
become clear that two time constants T, and T,, are required
to accurately fit the admittance versus frequency curve. It is
known that the built-in SPICE-model of the diode contains
only one single time constant, the transit time T T . in the next
section we will see how accurate the SPICE simulation is if
TT is taken to equal T Z , the effective transit time resulting
from the impedance diagram.
Iv. SPICE SIMULATION OF THE SOLAR CELLS
Now, all the required SPICE parameters of the solar cell
equivalent circuit shown in Fig. 2 are determined. Then the
nodes of the circuit are numbered and the circuit is input to
the computer according to the known SPICE instructions. The
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5, MAY 1996
0.7
Tz40.C
0.6
0.5
w
0.3
0.2
0
1.00 0 0.25 0-50 0.75 00
X (mm)
(b)
= 78 mA.
static I-V characteristics, the junction potential distribution,
and the magnitude and phase of the solar cell admittance as
a function of frequency at different dc operating points were
obtained as outputs from SPICE.
Figs. 2 and 4 show the simulated I-V characteristics together
with the measured ones for the solar cell specimen at different
illumination intensities and temperatures. We also plotted the
I-V characteristics from the lumped model with R, = 0.15 R
in Fig. 2 for sake of comparison. There is a good agreement
between the simulated and measured I-V characteristics at
T = 27°C for the lower photocurrents and at T = 40°C
for the higher ones which means that the solar cell is getting
hotter during the measurement because of the power dissipated
in it. It is clear from Fig. 2 that the lumped model is less
accurate than the distributed model at high current densities.
The junction voltage as a function of the distance II: measured
from metallization edge is shown in Fig. 9(a). The decrease
of the junction voltage with increased x due to R, is only
apparent at higher junction voltage; namely at VI = 0.6 V.
The potential distribution according to (A. 1) in Appendix 1
is also shown in the same figure. It is clear from the figure
that there is good agreement between the SPICE simulation
results and the exact solution which indicates that the number
of elements taken here is sufficient for accurate simulation. In
addition, the drop in the junction voltage due to R, is smaller
than one thermal voltage at the highest operating junction
voltage of about 0.57 V for conventional solar cells.
Fig. 9(b) shows the junction voltage as a function of the
position 2 measured from the metallization edge at I p h = 78
mA. It is clear from this figure that when the solar cell is short
ZEKRY AND AL-MAZROO: DISTRIBUTED SPICE-MODEL OF A SOLAR CELL 699

1.0 I I I I I 1 I
+ Simulated by Pspice ylP I=5mA
+ Lumped model admittance YL r
'ii 0.8 - WE

-
5
c
CI

0.6 -
i
0
U
Y

*E O 4 -
L.

E
0
f 0.2 -

0.01 ' ,111111' I1111111 ~ ~ d~ 8 U1 , ~ I l

1 ~ 1 ~8 ~ ,I I 1,111"1 , 1 1 1 1 1

Frequency (Hz) Fig. 11. The lateral current flow in a segment.

Fig. 10. Comparison of the lumped admittance with the Spice simulation
and measured admittance for a dc cell current I = 5 mA.
well as the small signal impedance. There is some discrepancy
between the measured and SPICE simulation results because
circuited, VI = 0, the lateral voltage drop will be maximum the built-in SPICE-model of the p-n junction diode neglects
with an increasing junction voltage as x increases which is the the frequency dependance of the neutral admittance. Our
opposite of the potential distribution in the dark case. As VI investigations showed that two time constants are required
increases, the junction voltage distribution becomes more flat to accurately account for the performance of the solar cell.
until it levels out at VI M 0.6 V. It must be mentioned that the characterization techniques
The magnitude of the SPICE-simulated admittance Y ( f ) and methodologies developed here are directly applicable to
of the solar cell as a function of frequency at a bias current photodetectors and other diodes.
of 5 mA is shown in Fig. 10 together with the lumped
model admittance and measured admittance. Because of the APPENDIX
small bias current of the cell the effect of distributed R, is
negligibly small. It is seen from these curves that the SPICE- The Equivalent Series Resistance RSt
simulated admittance deviates more than the lumped model
admittance from the measured admittance because the SPICE- According to Fig. 11 and based on Hauser theory of emitter
model built in the program does not take into consideration the current crowding [5] one gets the junction potential distribu-
frequency dependence of Y, while the lumped model takes tion
into consideration this frequency variation. Accordingly, the
built-in SPICE-model for the p-n diode must be modified to ac-
count for the frequency dependence of the neutral admittance.
For our specimens, however, the discrepancies between the
three admittances lie within acceptable accuracy limits. This
confirms the proposed model of a solar cell and the extraction
techniques of its parameters. where R,,, is the lateral series resistance of one section in a
segment. R,,, = ((~EWS)/(WE.LF)). IL(O)is the total cell
V. CONCLUSION current at x = 0.
We can now express the equivalent total series resistance
In this work a distributed SPICE-model for a solar cell is of one segment R,,, as
developed. Elaborate experimental methods have been deviced
to accurately determine the model parameters. They are based
on the static I-V characteristics and the small signal impedance (A.3)
measurements. The model parameters for an element in a
segment are the series resistance R,,, the shunting resistance Substituting x = W, in (A.1) and combining it with (A.2)
R,,, the subtrate resistance R d , , the reverse saturation current and (A.3) it follows that
I,,, the ideality factor N , the zero biase capacitance C,,,, the
built-in voltage Q, the grading coefficient m, the transit time
T T , the temperature, and the semiconductor material.
R,,, =
ln(I/ cos z )
z t a n z )Rsso. (
After determining the SPICE parameters of a solar cell For small values of IL(O) = I such that tan z = z and
we run the SPICE program and obtained simulation results. cosz = (1- ( z 2 / 2 ) ) ,(A.4) can be approximated to
It has been found that these results are in good agreement
with the measured illuminated and dark I-V characteristics as R,,,.= (Rsso/2). (A.5)
 700
According to (A.5) the effective resistance of one segment at
relatively small values of the currents amounts only to half its
real series resistance value Rss,. The total equivalent resistance
of the cell Rste can be expressed by
where 2nf is the number of segments in the cell.
REFERENCES
. _S. M. Sze. Phvsics
111 , ofSemiconductorDevices.
“ New York Wilev, 1981,
pp. 790-838.
[2] E. S. Yang, Microelectronic Devices. New York Wiley, 1988, pp.
357-386.
[3] F. D. No and T. D. Morgan, “SPICE-modeling of cascade solar cells,”
in IEEE Proc. Southeast Con$, IEEE Service Center, Piscataway, NJ,
1991, pp. 776-780.
[4] N. A. Kennedy, A. F. Imece, and C. A. Gross, “Analysis of utility
interconnected photovoltaic systems,” in IEEE Proc. North American
Power Symp., IEEE Service Center, Piscataway, NJ, 1987, pp. 131-141.
[5] I. R. Hauser, “The effect of distributed base potential on emitter current
~ injection density and effective base resistance for a strip transistor
geometries,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. ED-1 1, pp. 238-242,
1964.
[6] D. L. Crook and J. R. Yeargan, “Optimization of silicon solar cell design
for use under concentrated sun light,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices,
vol. ED-24, pp. 330-336, 1977.
[7] M. A. AlSweidan, “Development of vector-impedance meter,” Master
Thesis, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, 1994.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, VOL. 43, NO. 5, MAY 1996
Abdelhalim Zekry was born in Menofia, Egypt,
on August 8, 1946. He received the B.Sc. and
M.Sc. degrees from Cairo University in 1969 and
1973, respectively, and the Dr. Ing. degree from the
Technical University of Berlin, in 1981.
He joined the Institute of Electrical Materials,
Technical University of Berlin, in 1975 as a sci-
entific coworker. In 1982, he became an Assistant
Professor, Department of Electronics and Comput-
ers, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University,
Cairo In 1988, he moved to King Saud University,
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as an Associate Professor Since August 1992, he has
been a Professor of Electronics at the same university His main research
activities are devoted in semiconductors, and to chemcal vapor deposition
Dr Zekry was awarded the best research prize of Ain Shams University
in 1987
Abdulhameed Yousef Al-Mazroo (SM’86-M’88)
received the B Sc. degree from King Saud Univer-
sity (formerly Riyadh University), Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia, in 1980, the M Sc degree from University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1984, and the P h D
degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University, Blacksburg, in 1988, all in electrical
engineering.
From July 1980 to September 1981, he worked as
a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, King Saud University He joined the
same department as an Assistant Professor in January 1989 His current
research interests include thick film circuits, modeling of semiconductor
devices, and characterization of magnetic materials and components