Investigation of fast light-induced degradation of crystal silicon solar cells under the irradiation of a high-intensity monochromatic LED light source

Abstract

With the development of high-efficiency solar cells, the issue of industrial Si photovoltaic (PV) cells' light-induced degradation (LID) became even more serious. In this paper, a method for quick LID treatments was developed. A high-intensity monochromatic light source was used to realize a quick LID treatment, and 940-nm light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were selected to build a high-intensity LID treatment platform. The photon flux density output from this light source can reach 1.32 × 1023 m−2 s−1. From the simulation and calculation, the photons of 1.27× 1023 m−2 s−1 can be utilized by a 200-μm-thick typical Cz Si passivated emitter rear cell (PERC) under the illumination of this light source, whereas only 2.44 × 1021 m−2 s−1 photons can be used under the airmass 1.5 global (AM1.5G) conditions. Only 6 min of irradiation was needed under this monochromatic LED light source to reach the same amount of photons utilized by the cells under the AM1.5G illumination for 5 h. In the actual situation, the temperature in the LED LID chamber was ∼10 °C higher than that in the Xe-lamp condition. This slightly higher temperature induced the shortening of irradiation time further (only ∼5 min).