HAMDARD UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH

Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

A Design of Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) Multi Junction

Solar Cell using MATLAB

This thesis is presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of
Bachelor of Science in Electrical & Electronic Engineering (EEE)

Bangladesh 2016
HAMDARD UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH
Hamdard City of Science, Education & Culture, Gazaria, Munshiganj-1510, Bangladesh.

Submitted By

Name ID
Md. Mehedi Hasan Bhuiyan 555122011
Akramul Haque Arman 555122003
A.F.I. Mahbub 555122019

Supervisor
Shaon Ahmed

Lecturer,
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering,
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 Hamdard University Bangladesh
Project/Thesis Assessment Committee:
Chairman Dean, Faculty of Science, Prof. Dr. Md. Ismail
Engineering & Technology Jabiullah
Member Supervisor, Lecturer, Shaon Ahmed
Department of Electrical &
Electronic Engineering
Member-Secretary Head, Department of Electrical Dr. Mohammad
& Electronic Engineering Rabiul Alam

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 HAMDARD UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH

Candidates Declaration

It is declared hereby that this thesis paper or any part of it has not been submitted to
anywhere else for the award of any degree.

________________________ ________________________ ________________________

Md. Mehedi Hasan Bhuiyan Akramul Haque Arman A.F.I. Mahbub
ID: 555122011 ID: 555122003 ID: 555122019

4
 December 2016

Copyright 2016

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We knew from the beginning that pursuing Engineering study is a difficult and challenging task.
This dissertation could not have been completed without the great support that we have received
from many people over the journey. We wish to offer our most heartfelt thanks to the following
people. Throughout this long journey, we have gained a lot by learning to persevere despite
hardship. We would never have successfully completed this thesis without the assistance of
numerous people who we are indebted to. First of all, we would like to express our sincerest
appreciation to Mr. Shaon Ahmed, whose thoughtful consideration and guidance has been
invaluable. We greatly benefited from his keen scientific insight, his knack for solving seemingly
intractable practical difficulties, and his ability to put complex ideas into simple terms. Our faculty
members, stuffs helped a lot for completion of this thesis. We would like to thank them from the
core of our heart.

We would like to extend our sincerest thanks and appreciation to our parents for their emotional
support no matter what path we choose. First and foremost we would like to thank our Mom, Dad
for their constant love and support. Above all, we owe it all to Almighty God for granting us the
wisdom, health and strength to undertake this research task and enabling us to its completion.

Last, but not least, we send a big thanks to all our friends, who always support us, give us good
advice and make our life colorful!

Md. Mehedi Hasan Bhuiyan

Akramul Haque Arman
A.F.I. Mahbub

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 ABSTRACT
Renewable energy is a demanding issue for present world. After studying much on different
renewable energy sources, it is clear that solar energy is more preferable due to the fact that its
cheap, eco-friendly and energy efficient. From literature it is found that among a vast amount of
solar material, group III nitride materials are more effective in the sense that it absorbs solar energy
better than most of the other devices. However these materials still remain in development phase as
it needs more work to be done before it could be manufactured and justify its worth in the scientific
community. In this thesis a study of Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) has been done with a view to
prove its effectiveness as solar cell material. As a direct band gap semiconductor it has the same
band gap as the visual spectrum. Here, a quad-junction InGaN solar cell is designed and simulated
in MATLAB R2013a. The preliminary development phase is based on optimization of the InGaN
material using a standard solar cell design. The band gaps of each of the junctions are same and
dependent on the composition percentage of Indium Nitride and Gallium Nitride throughout the
whole length of the material. The numerical model adopted in this research will work as a skeleton
to simulate other group III nitride materials. The model used default values for some parameters,
such as electron and hole lifetimes, electron and hole density of states, and doping concentration.
Different characteristics parameters of the material has been calculated and shown in this thesis by
using different equations such as Poissions equation, continuity equation, and ideal diode equation.
The findings of this research show that InGaN is a promising semiconductor to be used as solar
cell. The efficiency of InGaN appears to increase 0.5% more than the current simulation studies
which leaves us a huge scope for future work.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page
Project/Thesis Assessment Committee iii
Declaration iv
Acknowledgement v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
List of Tables x
List of Figures xi
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Motivation for This Research 1
1.1.1 Global Crisis and Solar Cells 1
1.1.2 Group III-V Semiconductor 2
1.1.3 Developments of Multi Junction III-V Semiconductor 3
Compound Solar Cells
1.2 Literature Review 4
1.3 Research Objectives 5
1.4 Research Methodology 6
1.5 Thesis Organization 6
Chapter 2 Fundamentals of Solar Cell and its Operation
2.1 Semiconductor Physics 8
2.1.1 Bohr Model 8
2.1.2 Bonding Model 9
2.1.3 Energy Band Model 10
2.1.4 Atomic Structure 11
2.1.5 Electrons and Holes 13
2.1.6 Direct and Indirect Band Gaps 15
2.1.7 Fermi Level 16
2.1.8 Material Properties 17
2.1.9 Doping 18
2.1.10 P-N Junction 19
2.2 Solar Cells 20
2.2.1 History of Solar Cells 20
2.2.2 The Photovoltaic Effect 21
2.2.3 The Electromagnetic Spectrum 21
2.2.4 Band Gap 22
2.2.5 Solar Cell Junctions 23
2.2.6 Lattice Matching 23
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 2.2.7 AM0 Spectrum 25
2.2.8 Current-Voltage Curves 27
2.2.9 Electrical Output 28
2.3 Solar Cell Operations 28
2.4 Solar Cell Performance 29
2.5 Multi Junction Solar Cells 32
Chapter 3 Investigation of Major Characteristics

3.1 Present State of the Art of InGaN Solar Cells 34

3.2 Theoretical Design and Modeling 35
3.3 Photocurrent Density 36
3.4 Open Circuit Voltage 39
3.4.1 Standard Test Conditions 40
3.5 Band Gap 40
3.6 Effective Mass 42
3.7 Absorption Coefficient (InGaN) 42
3.8 Reverse Saturation Current Density 43
3.9 Intrinsic Carrier Concentration 44
3.10 Depletion Width 45
3.11 Efficiency 45
3.12 Reflectance 46
3.13 Photon Energy 47
3.14 Photon Flux Density per Unit Bandwidth 47
3.15 Carrier Mobility 47
Chapter 4 Characteristics Calculation Using MATLAB
4.1 Effect of In Concentration in InGaN Band Gap 49
4.2 Effect of Band Gap on Absorption Coefficient 50
4.3 Effect of Acceptor Doping Concentration on Short Circuit Current 51
Density and Open Circuit Voltage
4.4 Effect of Band Gap on Reflectance 53
4.5 Effect of n-layer Thickness on Efficiency 54
4.6 Effect of Carrier Lifetime on Efficiency 55
4.7 Effect of Surface Recombination Velocities on Conversion 56
Efficiency
4.8 I-V Curve 57
4.9 Efficiency Calculation 58
4.10 PV Curve 59
Conclusion 60
Future Work 60
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Appendix 61
Reference 62

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Title Page

2.1 Definition of n and p 14
2.2 ni for five semiconductors 15

2.3 Approximate wavelength of various colors in vacuum 22

2.4 Common semiconductor band gaps 22
3.1 Carrier mobility 48
3.2 The value of 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 and 48

4.1 Efficiency for different In concentration 58

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Title Page

2.1 Absorption efficiency of the different materials of a triple junction 8

solar cell
2.2 Portion of periodic table of elements 9
2.3 Using the bond model, visualization of (a) defect or missing atom 10
and (b) an electron breaking its bond from an atom
2.4 An orbital model of a Si atom showing the electrons orbiting the 11
nucleus and the first excitation orbit that would free an electron
from its bond
2.5 Silicon atomic structure 12
2.6 Silicon atom covalent bonds 12
2.7 Band gap diagrams 13
2.8 Doping: n-type and p-type 14
2.9 Direct and indirect band gaps 15
2.10 Fermi level: intrinsic case 16
2.11 Fermi level: n-type case 16
2.12 Fermi level: p-type case 17
2.13 Using the band gap model, (a) an insulator, (b) a semiconductor, and 17
(c) a conductor or metal
2.14 Bonding model illustration of (a) donor, P, contributing an electron 18
to the lattice and (b) acceptor, B, accepting an electron from the
lattice forming a hole
2.15 Band diagram, density of states, Fermi function, and carrier 19
concentrations for (top) intrinsic material, (middle) n-type material,
and (bottom) p-type material
2.16 Formation of the depletion region at a p-n junction (electric field 20
arrows are in terms of electron flow)
2.17 The electromagnetic spectrum 21
2.18 Effect of light energy on different band gaps 23
2.19 Simple cubic lattice structure 24
2.20 Lattice constants 24
2.21 Lattice constant for InN and Ga 25
2.22 AM0 spectrum (Wavelength vs Irradiance) 26
2.23 AM0 spectrum (Energy vs Irradiance) 26
2.24 Sample IV curve used in efficiency calculations 27
2.25 Solar cell IV characteristic 28
2.26 Photogeneration in a simple solar cell 29
2.27 Typical current-voltage relationship for a simple solar cell 30
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2.28 I-V curve showing Pmax with Vmp and Imp 30
2.29 ASTM E-490 and Wehrli 1985 Air Mass Zero spectrum 31
2.30 An example of physically stacking of solar cells showing (a) 32
parasitic junction and (b) tunnel junction to minimize parasitic issue
2.31 AM0 spectrum with photogeneration ranges for InGaP, GaAs, 33
InGaNAs, and Ge
3.1 Sample four junction InGaN solar cell 35
3.2 Band gap graph of InGaN 42
3.3 Absorption coefficient vs Photon energy graph 43
4.1 InGaN band gap as a function of In concentration 49
4.2 Temperature dependence band gap 50
4.3 Band gap dependence absorption coefficient 51
4.4 Effect of acceptor doping concentration on short circuit current 52
density
4.5 Effect of acceptor doping concentration on open circuit voltage 52
4.6 Effect of band gap on reflectance 53
4.7 Effect of n-layer thickness on efficiency 54
4.8 Effect of carrier lifetime on efficiency 55
4.9 Effect of surface recombination velocities on conversion efficiency 56
4.10 I-V curve of In0.2Ga0.8N 57
4.11 Efficiency curve 58
4.12 P-V curve of In0.2Ga0.8N 59

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