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Solar cell efficiency mapping by LBIC

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 45th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials
& The Workshop on Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Technologies
9 11 September 2009, Postojna, Slovenia

Solar Cell Efficiency Mapping by LBIC

Matev Bokali, Marko Jankovec, Marko Topi
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Traka 25, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Phone: +386 1 4768 276 Fax: +386 1 4264 630
(E-mail: Matevz.Bokalic@fe.uni-lj.si)

Abstract Light beam induced current (LBIC) measurement is performed by illuminating small spots throughout
the whole solar cell area, while measuring the photo-induced current. Results are presented as a map of local
performance distribution of the cell and provide information about various defects, which compromise the overall
cell performance.
The construction of the LBIC apparatus and measuring methodology are explained. Measurement results of two
different solar cells and two mini-modules are presented and discussed. Polycrystalline silicon solar cell local
efficiency map clearly shows crystal boundaries while results for dye-sensitized solar cell indentify local
imperfections and inhomogeneities of hand-made TiO2 layers. LBIC results of PV modules show differences
between performance of cells connected in series in polycrystalline silicon mini-module whereas in the case of the
amorphous silicon PV module an important role of the TCO resistance and the effect of built-in resistance between
the adjacent bottom TCO layers in the monolithic contact are revealed.

different laser sources for their high spatial resolution

1 INTRODUCTION
ability over large area, since the beam can be very
Energy conversion performance is the main precisely focused. In addition, it can also be
characteristic of solar cells and modules. Among upgraded to LBIV and CELLO methods, if required.
other factors (e.g. material purity, light management, The basic principle of the LBIC method, shown on
current collection efficiency) that influence the Fig. 1, is to measure the induced short circuit current,
overall performance of solar cells, localised defects while exposing the device to a focused light beam.
are of great importance, especially in the thin film By selectively illuminating the device surface we
devices. Several measurement methods have been obtain a map of local responses. LBIC measurement
developed for solar cell efficiency characterisation. system is basically comprised of a light source,
The most commonly used method is IV scanning of focusing optics, a positioning system, and measuring
the cell that is homogenously illuminated by the solar equipment. Selection of the elements depends on the
simulator. While this method gives information only required resolution, spot size, specimen type and
for generalised cell performance, which is a sum of size, excitation light wavelength and specimen
local efficiencies, a spatially resolved methods give orientation.
much more detailed insight in the cells performance.
To obtain the information about the local efficiency
distribution, several methods are used, such as
thermography [1], photoluminescence [2],
electroluminescence [3] and several methods based
on light beam excitation: LBIC (Light Beam Induced
Current) [4], LBIV (Light Beam Induced
Voltage) [5] and CELLO (Solar Cell Local
Characterization) [6].
These methods provide the means to identify
localised areas with poorer efficiency, local defects,
weak interconnections and crystal grain boundaries.
In combination with simulations the cause for weaker
Figure 1: Basic LBIC Setup.
areas can be deducted, leading to production process
optimization. Several LBIC setups have been reported, e.g.: small
This article describes the LBIC apparatus and area, high resolution apparatus at Colorado State
presents the measurement results of different types of University [7], large area facilities at Loughborough
solar cells and modules. Although it is relatively time University [8] and at Institute for Environment and
consuming, we have chosen the LBIC method with Sustainability in Ispra, Italy [9].

269
 45th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials
& The Workshop on Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Technologies
9 11 September 2009, Postojna, Slovenia

we have chosen an additional computer controlled

2 METHODOLOGY
We have designed LBIC setup to measure solar
cells, mini modules and optical sensors using a single
setup. On one hand, mini modules and larger solar
cells measurements require large scan area, while on
the other hand, optical sensors measurements and
defect studies require high resolution. Specific
requirements arise from these goals:
scan area 15 by 15 cm,
variable illuminated spot size 1 mm2 to 1 m2
maintaining constant light intensity,
comparative measurement for quantum
efficiency calculations,
selectable excitation light wavelength, and
full computer control.
The developed system is shown in Fig. 2.
Initially, we have chosen a cost effective 638 nm
single-mode fibre pigtailed laser diode (1) with
power of 20 mW to cover estimated 13 dB losses
along optical path. When appropriately driven, it
produces sine wave modulated laser beam. Single
mode fibre maintains Gaussian beam and allows an
easy replacement with compatible laser sources. The
Laser diode controller (2) operates in one of the two
modes: open loop current control mode, or closed
loop power control mode. Both modes support sine
wave modulation up to 20 kHz that is obtained from
the waveform generator (3), which is also used as a
reference signal source for lock-in amplifiers. While
modulating the laser diode supply current, we must
ensure that the current does not fall under the diodes
threshold current or exceeds the diodes peak power.
In order to comply with high laser intensity
dynamics requirements (constant laser spot light
intensity with area spanning from 1 mm2 to 1 m2)
fibre pigtailed calibrated attenuator (4) with 60 dB
attenuation for this purpose. At the end of the optical
fibre, the collimator (5) is placed, which prepares the
beam for further optical management.
Collimated laser beam, approximately 3 mm in
diameter, then hits the polarization insensitive beam
splitter (6). 50 % of the beam is steered to the
reference photodiode (7), the other 50 % passes
through towards the specimen. Prior to the specimen,
a focusing lens (8) is mounted onto a z-axis
translation stage (9), which enables computer
controlled focusing. The specimen is placed
vertically into the holder, which is mounted onto x
and y-axis translation stages (10). Controller (11)
manipulated translation stages with 15 cm maximal
travel and typical uni-directional repeatability under
1 m have been chosen for consistent specimen
positioning.
A simple resistor is used as a load for specimen to
measure the current. The resistor value has to be
chosen carefully. It must be low enough to keep the
specimen very close to the short-circuit conditions,
but at the same time it has to be high enough, so that
the voltage on the resistor can be accurately
measured. In case of the smallest spot size
illuminated with AM 1.5 intensity, the maximum
induced current is lower than 1 nA, therefore a lock-
in measuring technique is used. Lock-in
amplifiers (12) have the ability to measure the
component of known frequency in a noisy
environment because they exploit the orthogonal
properties of the sine function.
Finally, all the components are connected to the
computer (13), where a LabVIEW application
controls the measurements.

Figure 2: Designed LBIC Setup.

270
 45th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials
& The Workshop on Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Technologies
9 11 September 2009, Postojna, Slovenia
The application features a modular design. Each
computer controlled component of the setup
communicates with its own software module. This
design approach allows simple setup modifications.
At the start-up, the application initializes all the
modules and sets all the positioning stages in their
home position. In order to keep the spot size the same
throughout the whole specimen area, the exact
position of specimen plane has to be defined. This
allows correction of the focusing lens position during
the measurement and keeps the spot size constant.
Beam diameter is measured with a knife-edge
technique [10]. Light beam is focused onto a photo-
detector. The response current is measured while the
knife blocks the beam in small steps. The distance
between the positions with 10 % and 90 % of the
maximal response current value is defined as a beam
width. Instead of the actual knife, a contact finger, a
sharp cell edge or a defect can be used to block the
beam, thus measuring the beam width exactly on the
surface plane of the specimen. The beam diameter
has to be approximately the same as the measurement
step in order to uniformly cover the whole cell area.
1 D and 2 D measurement methods are
implemented. The results of the first one are
presented as a magnitude vs. position graph, while
the results of the second one are presented on a y vs.
x graph where the magnitude is presented either on
the z axis or in a colour intensity scale.
To enable repeatability of the measurements and to
allow for additional calculations, measured values are
stored raw together with all the configuration
parameters.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. Beam focusing, spot size
With this equipment we achieved the minimal spot
width of 27 m, as shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 3: Beam width measurement with knife-edge
method.
We performed additional measurements to
investigate why the spot size does not meet the
requirements. Beam width vs. z-axis graph in Fig. 4
271
reveals that the axes of the collimator, the z-axis
translation stage and the lens are not sufficiently
aligned. Further improvements are necessary and are
already under way. The collimator is being replaced
with an adjustable one and the focusing lens is being
mounted onto a z-axis translation stage via 6-axis
adjustable mount. This will allow us to adjust the
collimator and the lens mount precisely, so we can
ensure accurate optical axis alignment and reach a
diffraction limited performance of the optical system
and a smaller spot size.
Figure 4: Beam width vs. lens position.
3.2. Microcrystalline solar cell
The first measurement was carried out over the
whole area of microcrystalline silicon (Si) solar cell
(100 mm by 52 mm). For that we chose a resolution
of 500 m, which resulted in 20,800 measurement
points. The results are shown in Fig. 5.
Typical structure of the solar cell with metal
contact fingers is observed. The horizontal contact
fingers are not perfectly aligned with the scanning
x-axis, therefore aliasing effect is noticeable along
them. The boundaries between adjacent crystals with
lower performance in short-circuit current are clearly
seen, and differences in efficiency between crystals
are also evident. The zero current area at the bottom
is not the defect, but a shadow of measuring
equipment. There is another defect visible at
(x = 138000 m, y = 20000 m) which cannot be
attributed to a single crystal or optical defect.
Figure 5: LBIC measurement results of the
microcrystalline Si solar cell (Relative response).
 45th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials
& The Workshop on Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Technologies
9 11 September 2009, Postojna, Slovenia
3.3. Dye-sensitized solar cell
A measurement of a small 55 mm2 dye-sensitized
solar cell was performed, where a 100 m resolution
was chosen. A cell that gave insufficient results was
chosen among a series of cells, fabricated in our
laboratory [11].
Results in Fig. 6 show large variations in local
performance distribution and even some almost dead
areas. One of the reasons for such inhomogeneous
response lays in the hand-made production.
Figure 6: LBIC measurement results of the DSSC
(Relative response).
3.4. Cell in amorphous silicon module
One cell of the amorphous silicon module
represents typical conventional thin-film solar cells.
Although one cell is only 5 mm long, a larger area of
16x35 mm2 was chosen for the scan, which included
a neighbouring cell as well. The cell was contacted
via a layer of silver paste 25 mm long, but only the
first 15 mm of the layer from the right side was
contacted by a measuring wire. This contact
configuration allows observation of how the contact
quality influences cell performance. The measured
area was scanned with a resolution of 500 m and the
results are shown in Fig. 7.
Figure 7: LBIC measurement results of the cell in
amorphous silicon module (Relative response).
Interesting effects, caused by the monolithic contact
structure, were noticed on the neighbouring cell. The
272
lower cell in Fig. 7 with positive response was
directly connected into the measuring circuit, as
marked with (1) in Fig. 8. Surprisingly, the upper
cell, marked with (2) in Fig. 8, was not directly
connected into the measuring circuit, but nonetheless
generated a response. This can be explained by the
nature of monolithic contact, as shown in Fig. 8. The
resistances (3, 4) across the isolation cut (where the
front TCO on glass substrate is removed) are low
enough to provide an auxiliary path for the current
and the back TCO to front TCO resistance (5) is high
enough to form a current divider. Then, the current is
measured with a negative sign.
Figure 8: Schematic cross-section of three adjacent
cells.
The influence of the TCO and the contact resistance
is evident in the results. On the top of the lower cell,
from x = 90000 m to x = 75000 m the contact to
measuring wire supports good current collection and
consequently good performance. Next 10 mm to the
left, the silver paste and the TCO collect the current,
therefore the performance is decreasing. Further to
the left, only TCO collects the current, but the
resistance is too high and the performance is very
poor.
3.5. Crystalline mini module
For observing the local efficiency measurement on
a module of cells connected in series the crystalline
silicon mini module combined of 8 cells was
measured with the resolution of 500 m. The results
on Fig. 9 clearly show all 8 cells. Single cell is
observed as a thick vertical bar of approximately the
same local efficiency; in addition, between the cells a
line of lower local efficiency is visible, because the
cells are not accurately positioned close to each
other. One might assume that the cell which generates
the biggest LBIC response contributes the most to the
overall module efficiency. However, because of the
influence of other cells connected in series, this is not
necessarily true. Further measurements and
simulations must be conducted to give the correct
interpretation of the results.
 45th International Conference on Microelectronics, Devices and Materials
& The Workshop on Advanced Photovoltaic Devices and Technologies
9 11 September 2009, Postojna, Slovenia
Figure 9: LBIC measurement results of the
microcrystalline mini-module (Relative response).
Similarly to the measurements of the
microcrystalline Si solar cell, the front side metal
finger contacts are shown; however, their
representation is unexpected. They are shown as
regions with higher performance, which is
contradictory to the results observed in Fig. 5. There,
the contact finger blocks the beam, so that it does not
reach the active area of the cell. The reason for this
unusual behaviour in Fig. 9 is the protective coating
of the module which traps the reflected laser beam at
the front metal finger contacts and scatters it over a
larger cell area and surrounding cells. This causes the
current generation in other cells, which results in a
relatively higher measured response.
As is already the case with this simple
measurement, the interpretation of the LBIC results
of the modules is very demanding, but it generates
interesting results [12]. Certainly, a need for absolute
quantification of measurement results is needed. We
plan to calibrate the LBIC system for measurement of
wavelength- and voltage-dependent collection
efficiency.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The LBIC setup has been explained in detail. The
setup has been successfully used for measuring
specimens ranging from single solar cells and
modules to optical sensors. Measurements of four
different types of PV devices have been presented,
explanation for defects and behaviour has been
enclosed.
More work will be done on improving the setup and
on development of the simulation equipment, which
will help us to better understand the measurements.
Acknowledgments
The development of this setup was funded by
Slovenian Research Agency. The authors would like
to thank the DSSC team of LPVO for providing a
DSSC solar cell for measurements.
273
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