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ABSTRACT: Organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices represent a promising technology thanks to the improvements that
have been achieved in recent years, peaking beyond 10% power conversion efficiency (PCE) and to the potentially
high throughput and low cost production by using roll-to-roll printing techniques. Besides the improvements in
conversion efficiency, it is fundamental to increase their lifetime in order for them to be commercially attractive. In
order to study the stability of OPV devices, a round robin was organized in the framework of the SOPHIA project
among several European research centres, for the characterization after exposure at different temperature and
humidity conditions. While the purpose of the overall activity was to compare the results obtained by different
partners, in this work we present an analysis based on the measurements performed at the European Solar Test
Installation (ESTI) focusing on the degradation of electrical parameters (I sc, Voc, FF, Pmax) and on series and shunt
resistances (Rs and Rsh) obtained by fitting IV curves with one and three diode models.
Keywords: accelerated ageing, OPV, organic photovoltaics, degradation, series resistance, shunt resistance.
1 INTRODUCTION each cell having an active area of 8 cm2 (see Figure 1).
The mini modules were produced by the Technical
In recent years strong interest has risen for the University of Denmark with a roll-to-roll coating
development of Organic Photovoltaic Devices (OPV) due technique following the freeOPV design [6]. The
to their potentially low production costs and high structure of the cell is shown in Figure 1 with a picture of
throughputs. Efficiencies reaching 12% have been one mini-module. The cells had an active layer based on
demonstrated [1] and tests on outdoor stability have been P3HT:PCBM coated between a transparent electrode
performed, showing promising results of devices being (Flextrode*) and a PEDOT:PSS intermediate layer. The
stable after one year of outdoor exposure [2, 3, 4]. back electrode consisted of a silver grid printed with a
However, for these technologies to be roll-to-roll machine and the encapsulation was performed
commercialized, more effort is needed to develop a cheap using a flexible barrier material from Alcan. The devices
and stable production process and to ensure that devices were mounted on a rigid plexiglass substrate. The set of
can withstand prolonged operation without significant samples used for this test consisted in a number of
degradation of their electrical characteristics. In the devices that came from the same production batch.
framework of the European project SOPHIA, several Processing the devices with an automated roll-to-roll
tests have been performed at different European research technique led to a high uniformity in the performances of
institutes, regarding the electrical characterization and the devices. The average photon conversion efficiency of
stability of OPV. A Round Robin for the electrical the devices measured by DTU prior shipment was 1.74%
characterization involving several institutes resulted in with an absolute standard deviation of 0.06%.
drafting a series of recommendations and best practices
for measurements [5].
A stability test based on the procedures contained in Substrate
the guidelines of the International Summit on OPV Front electrode Flextrode *
Stability (ISOS) was performed at several institutes Intermidiate layer
participating in the SOPHIA project. The aim of this Active layer P3HT:PCBM
study was to perform an intercomparison of ageing tests Intermidiate layer PEDOT:PSS
and to assess the reproducibility of the results. Back electrode Ag grid
While the results of these SOPHIA tests are being Flexible plastic foil
Encapsulation
from Alcan
used to compare the ageing and electrical performances
obtained at different institutes to assess their uniformity,
in this work we analyze the IV curves measured for
devices aged at different conditions, according to ISOS
Figure 1: picture of one OPV mini module used for the
stability tests procedures. In particular we analyze the ISOS ageing test and schematic of the cell structure.
change of electrical parameters and we fit the IV curves
with different electrical models (one-diode and three-
diode models) to extract parameters such as series
3 TEST CONDITIONS
resistance (Rs) and shunt resistance (Rsh) to study how
they change during ageing. 3.1 Electrical characterization
A testing protocol was written by the organizers of
the campaign and distributed within the participants. A
2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEVICES detailed procedure for electrical characterization of the
devices was required in order to get reliable results.
The devices used for this study consist of a set of 6
Particular attention was given to the light soaking step
OPV mini modules having 8 cells connected in series,
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preceding the IV characterization (pre-conditioning), as on a metallic plate equipped with a Peltier cooler in order
requested by the test protocol. The protocol outlined a 5 to keep the temperature at 25°C during the IV sweep, the
minutes light soaking under a solar simulator with temperature being monitored by a PT100 placed on the
spectrum AM1.5G and an intensity of 1000 W/m2. After rear of the device.
this step 3 I-V curves had to be taken and their
characteristics had to be within 10 % variation. 3.2 Test conditions
Additional light soaking was suggested if the devices did The devices were exposed to three different test
not reach stabilization. conditions accordingly to ISOS guidelines. The
In the measurements performed at ESTI we noticed conditions are reported in Table I.
that the duration of the pre-conditioning step to obtain ISOS-D1 storage was achieved by keeping the
stable conditions varied, based on the history of the devices in the dark, in the laboratory where temperature
sample such as the ageing time and conditions. The light and humidity were monitored and during the test period
soaking was performed with the device kept in open were in the range of 23.1°C – 23.7°C for temperature and
circuit condition, at 25°C controlled by the Peltier cooler 46% - 57% for RH. The devices for storage condition
and illuminated with the same solar simulator used for IV ISOS-D2 was kept in an oven set at 65°C ±2°C, without
characterization at 1000W/m2. At the beginning of the humidity control, with the temperature monitored with a
ageing tests (described in more detail in section 4) a light PT100 placed near the device. ISOS-D3 conditions were
soaking of 5 minutes was found to be sufficient to obtained by placing the devices into a climatic chamber
stabilize the devices (see Figure 2a: Pmax calculated from with temperature and relative humidity control (65°C
the 5 I-V curves performed after pre-conditioning ±2°C, 85% ±5% R.H.).
exhibited a ±0.2% variation). In later stages of the ageing
tests, when the devices had been exposed to a period of Table I: ISOS test conditions used for the storage of
ageing, a longer light soaking step was needed to ensure devices
acceptable results as required in the protocol. Up to 20
minutes of light soaking were performed for devices kept TEST ID ISOS-D1 ISOS-D2 ISOS-D3
at high RH conditions, as shown in Figure 2b. This can
TEMPERATURE [°C] AMBIENT 65 65
be due to the presence of humidity in the active area of
the device. HUMIDITY [% R.H.] AMBIENT LOW 85
4 RESULTS
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29th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
is presented. Each point in the figures represents the that the electrical performances of these devices (both of
average of the values extracted from the 3 measured I-V them) remained particularly stable after 100 days of
curves. Here the results of all devices are shown and the ISOS-D2 condition (Pmax decreased 1.5% in one device
agreement of the devices kept in the same ageing and increased 0.4% in the other).
condition is noticeable.
Figure 3a: IV curves of the device subjected to ISOS-D1 Figure 3c: IV curves of one device subjected to ISOS-D3
conditions (laboratory conditions). conditions (damp-heat chamber).
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Figure 4: Trends of electrical parameters for all devices kept in different ISOS conditions.
curve. In Figure 5 an example of the parameters In Table II and Figure 6 the Rs and Rsh values
calculated from the fit is shown and the relative 95% extracted from the fit for the device kept in ISOS-D1 are
confidence bounds calculated using Matlab is specified. presented. The values of both resistances remained
almost constant during the considered ageing period. The
small variations noticeable in the table and plot agree
with the change of Isc (Rsh) and Pmax (Rs) already
discussed. The high R2 values resulting from the fit and
the goodness of the fitted curves (not reported here)
confirmed the that a good fit could be found with this
model.
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The behavior of Rs suggests that there is a constant small those days. This resulted also in low R2 values as
increase of the resistivity of one of the layers in the cells expected.
or in the contacts. This device was kept in a controlled
ambient in the laboratory, where about 50% relative
humidity was present. Thus the moisture ingress in the
device could be the main cause of Rs degradation.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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Figure 11: Plot of Rs and Rsh evolution for one of the weltrekord-fur-organische-solarzellen-heliatek-
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