Effects of moisture on CIGSS solar cells

Author

Olsen, Larry C. ; Kundu, Sambhu N.

Author_Institution

Pacific Northwest Nat. Lab., Richland, WA, USA

fYear

2005

fDate

3-7 Jan. 2005

Firstpage

487

Lastpage

490

Abstract

This paper focuses on the effect of moisture on CIGSS cells made by Shell Solar Industries (SSI). These studies were carried out with 10 cm × 10 cm monolithically integrated CIGSS circuits and individual cells diced from circuits. Cells under investigation were subjected to an environment of 60°C/90%RH and characterized at various time intervals. Illuminated and dark I-V characteristics, and quantum efficiency were measured versus time. The effects of moisture on the sheet resistance of the ZnO TCO and the Zn/O ratio were also examined. Efficiency of uncoated CIGSS cells subjected to the accelerated test conditions degrade from 10% to 1% within a few hundred hours. Two significant effects are found to contribute to the degradation, the sheet resistance of ZnO increases significantly, and the junction recombination losses increase.

Keywords

copper compounds; dark conductivity; electrical resistivity; gallium compounds; indium compounds; integrated circuit testing; life testing; moisture; monolithic integrated circuits; semiconductor device testing; solar cells; surface recombination; ternary semiconductors; 10 cm; 10 to 1 percent; 60 degC; 90 degC; CIGSS solar cells; Cu(InGa)(SSe)₂-ZnO; Illuminated characteristics; Shell Solar Industries; Zn/O ratio; accelerated test conditions; dark I-V characteristics; junction recombination losses; moisture effects; monolithically integrated CIGSS circuits; quantum efficiency; sheet resistance; Degradation; Electrical resistance measurement; Integrated circuit measurements; Life estimation; Moisture; Photovoltaic cells; Radiative recombination; Testing; Time measurement; Zinc oxide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2005. Conference Record of the Thirty-first IEEE

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8707-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488176

Filename

1488176