Electrical Performance Of Solar Cells Research Articles

Laser ablation of thin SiN x layer coated on silicon wafer—evaluation of process performance for PERC solar cell application

In fabricating passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) solar cells, creating small openings on the SiN x coated silicon substrate to establish metal contacts necessitates using a nanosecond pulsed green laser for ablation. However, the thermal nature of laser ablation poses a challenge. Excessive nitrogen diffusion from SiN x into the silicon substrate can compromise the electrical performance of solar cells. Therefore, this study aims to comprehensively understand how laser parameters impact the electrical properties of such solar cells. PERC solar cell precursors were initially fabricated by ablating the SiN x layer at four laser fluences, each corresponding to different regimes: solid, liquid, vapor, and phase explosion. Subsequently, various optical, chemical, and electrical characterizations were conducted on the solar cell precursors. Complete PERC solar cells were also fabricated to measure quantum efficiency (QE). In the solid regime, SiN x removal is precise, with minimal thermal damage, resulting in a nitrogen concentration of approximately 0.15%. Photoluminescence count and carrier lifetime are notably higher by 21% in the solid regime compared to the explosive regime. The QE measurement at 984 nm quantitatively assesses rear-side recombination losses. Notably, 26% of the area exhibits a 56% QE in the solid state, while this number drops to around 22% in the explosive state. This decline can be attributed to increased thermal damage in the explosive regime, which augments recombination centers and diminishes the solar cell performance. PERC solar cells ablated in the solid regime showcase lower subsurface damage, superior electrical characteristics, and higher performance than those ablated in the explosive regime.

1 MeV electron irradiation effect and damage mechanism analysis of flexible GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cells

In this study, the degradation behavior of flexible GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs (IMM3J) solar cells and their metamorphic subcells under 1 MeV electron irradiation was investigated. The remaining factors such as short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), and maximum power (Pmax) were 95.62, 85.52, and 79.73%, respectively, at an irradiation fluence of 2 × 1015 e/cm2. The spectral responses of the InGaAs and GaAs subcells degraded significantly, and the InGaAs subcell experienced greater degradation than the GaAs subcell after irradiation. In addition, the current-limiting unit was switched from GaInP to InGaAs after irradiation. Defect analysis by deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) revealed that with increasing irradiation fluence, the defects that had the greatest impact on the performance of GaAs subcells were EV + 0.36 and EV + 0.42 eV. For InGaAs subcells, the defects that had the greatest impact on the performance were EV + 0.29 and EV + 0.24 eV. The decrease in the minority carrier lifetime is the main reason for the decrease in the electrical performance of solar cells, and the variation in the effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff) in the subcells with the irradiation fluence was calculated based on the DLTS results. At a fluence of 2 × 1015 e/cm2, the τeff of the GaAs and InGaAs subcells decreased from 2.93 × 10−10 and 9.10 × 10−10 s to 1.56 × 10−11 and 1.60 × 10−12 s, respectively. These results provide a reference for predicting the degradation of short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage of flexible IMM3J.

Optimization of hybrid photovoltaic-thermal systems integrated into buildings: Impact of bi-fluid exchangers and filling gases on the thermal and electrical performances of solar cells

Optimization of hybrid photovoltaic-thermal systems integrated into buildings: Impact of bi-fluid exchangers and filling gases on the thermal and electrical performances of solar cells

(Invited) Interface Treatments for High-Efficiency MoOx Based Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Silicon based solar cells dominate the market of photovoltaics, which hold the highest potential for green electricity production. A front/back-contacted architecture combined with the silicon-based heterojunction (SHJ) concept realized a world record efficiency of 26.3%1. However, conventional silicon-based doped layers, which work as carrier selective transport layers, are not optically transparent.Transition metal oxides are promising candidates for SHJ solar cells due to their advantageous opto-electronic properties. Molybdenum oxide (MoOx) with high work function (WF) has achieved highly efficient solar cells with 23.5% efficiency2. However, depositing high quality MoOx thin film on top of a-Si:H is challenging due to highly reactive surfaces3. This interaction may result in interfacial oxidation, lower Mo oxidation states and reduced WF4,5. In turn, electrical performances of solar cells featuring MoOx are poorer3 than standard SHJ devices.Several attempts have been made to prevent the reaction between MoOx and (i)a-Si:H. Pre-annealing4 of a-Si:Hand pre-growth of SiOx layer6 have been proposed as effective ways to prevent the degradation of MoOx. Nevertheless, those approaches require extra process steps that make MoOx integration not immediately viable in industrial environment. In our previous work, we proposed a plasma treatment (PT) at MoOx/(i)a-Si:H interface that demonstrated to mitigate dipole effect and resulted in improved cell performance7. After optimizing the interface treatment, even thinner MoOx layer could be applied.The solar cells were fabricated using 260±20 μm 4-inch double-side textured n-type <100> FZ wafers. (i)a-Si:H was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition on both sides, while (n)a-Si:H only at the rear side. We carried out two different plasma treatments on the (i)a-Si:H interface prior MoOx deposition: one called PT from a mixture of SiH4, H2 and CO2 and another called PTB from a mixture of SiH4, H2, CO2 and B2H6. One sample without plasma treatment (noPT) was used as reference to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed method. A thickness series from 1 to 4 nm of MoOx was thermally evaporated from MoO3 powder at the pressure of 5×10-6 mbar. After that, optimized 50-nm and 150-nm thick tungsten-doped indium oxide (IWO) layers were sputtered through a hard mask at front and rear side, respectively, defining six 2×2 cm2 solar cells per wafer. As metal contact at the front side, we used room temperature Cu plating8 with a metal coverage fraction of 1.575%; at the rear side, 500-nm thick Ag layer was sputtered on the full device area.We studied the impact of different plasma treatment conditions on MoOx film quality and cells’ performance. MoOx film quality was assessed based on O vacancies inside the film4. The samples with interface treatments contain less O vacancies than the sample without treatment. It is noticeable that the cell precursors endowed with PTB yield higher fill factor (FF) than other types of precursors. Instead, PT and noPT samples benefitted from high short-circuit current density (J SC). Ultimately, PTB and PT samples achieved similar conversion efficiency. For the variation of MoOx thickness, we observed that even a slightly change in its thickness influences the solar cells’ electrical performance drastically. An ultra-thin, ~1.7-nm thick MoOx layer could provide sufficient field passivation (open circuit voltage, V OC = 721.4 mV) and good opto-electrical properties (FF = 82.18% and J SC-illuminated-area = 40.20 mA/cm2). With our approach we demonstrate word record cell with ISFH-certified conversion efficiency of 23.83% 9. 1 LONGi Solar 2021. 2 J. Dréon, et al., Nano Energy, 2020. 3 J. Geissbühler et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 2015. 4 M.T. Greiner, et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 2013. 5 M.T. Greiner, et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 2012. 6 J. Tong, et al. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2021. 7 L. Mazzarella, et al., Prog Photovolt Res Appl. 2020. 8 C. Han, et al., Solar RRL 2022. 9 L. Cao, et al., Prog. Photovolt. 2022.

Study of Solar Cells Using FISH MOSFETs as a Constructive Element to Generate Photocurrent in the Longitudinal Direction

According to a study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), solar energy could reach 30% in 2023 in countries with the most excellent installed generation capacity, such as China, Germany, Japan, and the United States of America. In other countries, like Brazil (mainly in Paraiba state), for instance, the volume of investments in the solar energy sector is equal to 4.17 billion Reais of private investments in 2022 to implement a photovoltaic module factory to reach an installed capacity of 1.6GW. In this context, several efforts have been made to boost the electrical performance of solar cells in terms of using new materials, fabrication processes, and constructive essential elements to produce electric energy with more efficiency. Thus, this paper performs, by three-dimensional numerical simulations, a comparative study between solar cells implemented with constructive elements based on Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs), N channel, depletion type, with two types of gate geometries, in which one is layouted with the typical rectangular (Rectangular MOSFET, RM) and other is implemented with the FISH layout style (FISH MOSFET, FM). The main results have shown that the solar cell implemented with the FISH MOSFET has an efficiency of approximately 57% higher than that presented in the solar cell implemented with the Conventional MOSFET. Therefore, the solar cells implemented with FISH MOSFETs can be considered an alternative constructive essential element to improve the electrical performance of solar cells.

Evaluation of the Minority-Carrier Lifetime of IMM3J Solar Cells under Proton Irradiation Based on Electroluminescence

The shortening of the minority carrier lifetime is the main reason for the degradation of the electrical performance of solar cells; therefore, it is particularly important to evaluate the minority carrier lifetime of inverted metamorphic triple junction (IMM3J) GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cells. We evaluate the minority carrier lifetime of each subcell of IMM3J solar cells before and after 2 MeV proton irradiation by the electroluminescence (EL) method. Before proton irradiation, the minority carrier lifetimes of the GaInP, GaAs, and InGaAs subcells were 6.99 × 10−9 s, 3.09 × 10−8 s, and 2.31 × 10−8 s, respectively. After proton irradiation, the minority carrier lifetime of GaInP, GaAs, and InGaAs subcells degraded significantly. When the proton fluence was 2 × 1012 cm−2, the minority carrier lifetimes of the GaInP, GaAs, and InGaAs subcells degraded to 1.63 × 10−10 s, 1.56 × 10−11 s, and 1.65 × 10−10 s, respectively. These results provide a reference for predicting the degradation of the short-circuit current and open-circuit voltage of each subcell.

Influences of Tellurite Glass Frits on the Electrical Properties of Silicon Solar Cells

In this work, a series of tellurite glass frits has been prepared and used as the silver paste in the Ag electrode of the solar cells. The softening temperature of the glass frits have been characterized by the differential scanning calorimeter. The glass frits G3 has the lowest softening temperature, and the corresponding composition of G3 is 42wt.%TeO2-53wt.% PbO-1wt.%B2O3-4wt.%Bi2O3. The surface and cross-sectional microstructures of Ag electrode and the solar cells have been characterized by the scanning electron microscope. The glass frits with lower softening temperature showed the positive influence due to the dense electrode formation and high strength adhesion force. The electrical properties of the solar cells have been also investigated. The solar cells screen printed the silver paste GP3 had the optimum electrical properties, which can be ascribed to the optimized surface and cross-sectional microstructures of Ag electrode. Therefore, the appropriate tellurite glass frits can well improve the electrical performance of solar cells.

Studying the effect of space radiation induced defects in multijunction solar cell using APSYS simulation software and comparison with the experimental data

In this paper, the state-of-the-art triple junction solar cell with three sub cells and two tunnel diodes is modeled using two dimensional (2D) APSYS finite element analysis software tool. The effect of electron radiation at 1 MeV and 10 MeV energies for different fluences are investigated by introducing different trap levels, trap states and trap concentrations in InGaP top and InGaAs middle sub cells. Two different structures are modeled by varying layer thickness of base and emitter of both top and middle sub cells to understand its effect on the electrical parameters and efficiency of the solar cell. The main indicative parameters - trap concentration and carrier lifetime is affected by the radiation resulting in alteration of electrical performance of solar cells. The radiation induced defects cause permanent damage to the solar cell structure and degrades the electrical performance of solar cells until its end of life (EOL). In this work, APSYS software tool is used to model radiation induced traps with different trap concentrations, generated the electrical parameters and compared with the experimental results. The results obtained from simulation are in good agreement with the experimental data. Probable traps, trap concentrations and carrier lifetime for different electron radiation energies and fluences were extracted by simulation, which can prove to be difficult to perform experimentally as only a few methods like deep level trap spectroscopy and deep level optical spectroscopy exist for deep level trap studies. This study can therefore save valuable R&D time and cost..

Concepts for heat utilization and passive cooling techniques to improve reliability and performance of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)

When integrated into urban environments, photovoltaic (PV) systems usually present operational temperatures that are significantly higher than those shown by rack-mounted systems. High operating temperatures are associated with reduced reliability of PV modules and significantly impact the electrical performance of solar cells. Utilizing the heat produced on PV modules or reducing operating temperatures can bolster their application within the building sector. We present the three main concepts studied to achieve these goals. First, a PV is a chimney concept that allows the use of the heat generated by the modules. Simulations for a PV chimney installed on a building in the Netherlands showed that although the heat quality produced inside its cavity was low, the potential use of the air mass flow for ventilation applications is promising. Additionally, we present two passive cooling solutions that can reduce the operating temperatures of PV modules: Optical filters and phase change materials. Experimental measurements in Delft showed that these solutions reduce the operating temperature of PV modules between 4 °C to 20 °C, particularly under high irradiance hours.

Temperature sensitivity maps of silicon wafers from photoluminescence imaging: The effect of gettering and hydrogenation

AbstractThe operating temperature has a critical impact on the electrical performance of solar cells. It has been shown that the temperature coefficient is not uniform across devices and often varies between different regions due to the inhomogeneous distributions of defects. In this study, temperature‐dependent photoluminescence imaging measurements are used to assess the influence of different processes such as gettering, firing and advanced hydrogenation on the temperature‐dependent electrical performance of cast‐mono silicon wafers. It is found that the height of the wafer within the ingot impacts the response of the temperature coefficient to different fabrication processes. Advanced hydrogenation is found to reduce the temperature sensitivity, more than expected solely from the improvement in implied open‐circuit voltage. Crystallographic defects are found to be the least temperature sensitive regions, indicating that their detrimental impact is reduced at higher operating temperatures. The interesting low temperature sensitivity in the defective regions is further investigated using hyperspectral photoluminescence imaging measurements and atom probe tomography. It is suggested that the reduced sensitivity is due to impurities decorating crystallographic defects.

Results of CFD-simulation of a solar photovoltaic-thermal module

Currently, in the energy supply of agroindustrial complex facilities there is an increasing interest in the development of structures and engineering systems using renewable energy sources, including combined photovoltaic-thermal modules (PVT-modules), combining photovoltaic modules (PV-modules) and solar collectors in one design. The use of PVT-modules technology makes it possible to increase the electrical performance of solar cells due to their cooling during operation, while the use of PVT-modules integrated into the roofs and facades of buildings can significantly reduce the need for centralized electricity and heat supply. The purpose of this work is to develop a CFD model of a solar PVT module for producing an estimate of the thermal performance of a PVT module. Using the ANSYS Fluent software package, a CFD model of the PVT module was developed. The contours of the temperature distribution, the coolant pressure in the PVT module channel at different values of the coolant flow at the entrance to the PVT module were obtained. The paper presents the daily variation of thermal power and total insolation calculated using the solar calculator built into ANSYS. The verification of the developed CFD-model of the PVT-module showed the comparability of the calculated values with the data obtained analytically and experimentally - the relative error of the results was no more than ± 1%. ANSYS is an effective software package that allows simulating thermal processes in PVT-modules.

РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ ЧИСЛЕННОГО МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЯ ПРОИЗВОДИТЕЛЬНОСТИ СОЛНЕЧНОГО КОНЦЕНТРАТОРНОГО МОДУЛЯ С ТЕПЛО-ФОТОЭЛЕКТРИЧЕСКИМ ПРИЕМНИКОМ

In the field of energy supply to agro-industrial facilities, there is an increasing interest in the development of structures and engineering systems using renewable energy sources, including solar concentrator thermal and photovoltaic modules that combine photovoltaic modules and solar collectors in one structure. The use of the technology of concentrator heat and photovoltaic modules makes it possible to increase the electrical performance of solar cells by cooling them during operation, and significantly reduces the need for centralized electricity and heat supply to enterprises of the agroindustrial complex. (Research purpose) The research purpose is in numerical modeling of thermal processes occurring in a solar concentrator heat-photovoltaic module. (Materials and methods) Authors used analytical methods for mathematical modeling of a solar concentrator heat and photovoltaic module. Authors implemented a mathematical model of a solar concentrator heat and photovoltaic module in the ANSYS Fluent computer program. The distribution contours of temperature and pressure of the coolant in the module channel were obtained for different values of the coolant flow rate at the inlet. The verification of the developed model of the module on the basis of data obtained in an analytical way has been performed. (Results and discussion) The results of comparing the calculated data with the results of computer modeling show a high convergence of the information obtained with the use of a computer model, the relative error is within acceptable limits. (Conclusions) The developed design of the solar concentrator heat and photovoltaic module provides effective cooling of photovoltaic cells (the temperature of photovoltaic cells is in the operating range) with a module service life of at least twenty-five years. The use of a louvered heliostat in the developed design of a solar concentrator heat and photovoltaic module can double the performance of the concentrator.

Degradation behaviors of photoelectrical properties of mixed cation perovskite solar cells under equivalent 1 MeV electron irradiation

Perovskite solar cells have excellent photoelectric properties, but their physical mechanism of anti-irradiation is still incomplete. In this work, we investigate the photoelectrical properties of mixed cation perovskite solar cells by performing electron irradiation experiments, characterization measurements (i.e. photoluminescence spectra, UV–vis absorption spectra, and quantum efficiency spectra), and Monte Carlo simulation analysis. It is found that the electrical performance of solar cells degrades more severely with increasing electron irradiation fluence. Specifically, the open-circuit voltage independent of the electron irradiation is attributed to the stability of perovskite materials. The short-circuit current density (alternatively, photoelectric conversion efficiency) of irradiated solar cells decreases because two main reasons: the blackening of the glass substrate hampers the short-wavelength light to reach the photosensitive layer, and the Au electrode has a large number of recombination centers to shorten the carrier lifetime. It is suggested that the mixed cation perovskite solar cell has anti-electron irradiation performance by adopting the anti-irradiation glass and electrode.

Effect of Chemical and Physical Parameters on the Electrical Outputs of Cu2Zn1−yFeySnS4-Based Solar Cells by wxAMPS

Cu2Zn1−yFeySnS4-based solar cells with different mole fractions of iron have been analyzed using numerical simulations in this study. The analysis deals with the effect of the iron content on the overall electrical performance of solar cells. Results revealed that the Voc is affected by the increase of the iron content even if it improves the other parameters. We found that the CZFTS solar cell with a mole fraction of iron equal to 1 (CFTS) showed the best results in terms of power conversion efficiency (PCE). Moreover, variations of several structural and physical parameters of the buffer CdS and the best absorber CFTS on the overall electrical characteristics of the cell were investigated. Simulations showed promising results with PCE of 20.35%, Jsc of 26.09 mA/cm2, Voc of 0.93 V, and FF of 83.93%. The results obtained can serve as a basis for the design and manufacture of high-efficiency CZFTS solar cells.

Annealing Effects on GaAs/Ge Solar Cell after 150 keV Proton Irradiation

Radiation-induced defects are responsible for solar cell degradation. The effects of radiation and annealing on the defects of a GaAs/Ge solar cell are modeled and analyzed in this paper. The electrical performance and spectral response of solar cells irradiated with 150 keV proton are examined. Then, thermal annealing was carried out at 120°C. We found that the proportion of defect recovery after annealing decreases with increasing irradiation fluence. The minority carrier lifetime increases with decreasing defect concentration, which means that the electrical performance of the solar cell is improved. We calculated the defect concentration and minority carrier lifetime with numerical simulation and modeled an improved annealing kinetic equation with experimental results.

Study of the Role of Window Layer Al0.8Ga0.2As on GaAs-based Solar Cells Performance

Numerical simulation of various structures of a solar cell plays a crucial role in the design, performance prediction and the comprehension of the physics involved in their operation. It also allows of better understanding the different ways to improve the solar cells efficiency before the manufacture of the practical cell. Objectives: In this study, numerical results were obtained using SCAPS-1D program in order to improve GaAs solar cells performance. Methods: The analysis deals with the role of Alx Ga1-x As-type window layer on overall electrical performance of solar cells. The variations of thickness and doping levels in this window layer were also investigated. Findings: By growing this layer at the GaAs surface, the efficiency increased from 17.23% to 27.37%. The simulation results showed that this window layer should be very thin and slightly doped to achieve good performances of the entire solar cells. Improvements/Applications: These results are interesting because they show how much the window layer is important in improving the efficiency of GaAs solar cells. Keywords: Efficiency Improvement, GaAs, Numerical Simulation, SCAPS-1D, Solar Cell, Window Layer

Enhanced performance of GaInP/GaAs/Ge solar cells under high concentration through Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd/Al grid metallization

AbstractSeries resistance is the key limiting factor that constrains the electrical performance of solar cells under ultra‐high concentration. Typically, the most critical component of the series resistance is that stemming from the front contact, and therefore, the formation of front metal grids with low metal–semiconductor specific contact resistance and low metal sheet resistance is vital for high concentrator solar cells. Consequently, in this study, a novel Pd/Ge/Ti/Pd/Al metal stack has been proposed and implemented on a GaInP/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cell. This system exhibits low metal resistivity due to the middle Ti/Pd barrier layer hindering the diffusion and contamination between the GaAs semiconductor and top conductive metal layer, and very low specific contact resistance because of the Pd/Ge layer forming an interfacial layer with the GaAs cap which increases the electron tunneling probability. As a result, the fill factor of the solar cell remains almost constant and close to 90% in the 250× to 1500× range, while efficiency keeps on increasing even at the maximum concentration measured of 1500×. Its performance and cost‐effectiveness make this contact a compelling solution to extend solar cell operation in the ultra‐high concentration regime.

Role of elemental intermixing at the In2S3/CIGSe heterojunction deposited using reactive RF magnetron sputtering

In the present work, sputtered In2S3 buffer layers are deposited on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorbers with no or minimal sputter damage. Buffer deposition at slower sputter rates (0.22 Å/s) with H2S as a reactive gas improved the interface quality and uniformity. We obtained crystalline In2S3 films at room temperature with the deposition parameters used in this work. Elemental intermixing effect at the In2S3/CIGSe heterointerface at different annealing temperatures was mapped in 3-dimensions using atom probe tomography (APT). APT results revealed the induced sputter damage during buffer layer deposition, and the effect of diffusion and segregation of elements at the heterointerface. Knowledge of elemental redistribution at the buffer-absorber heterointerface can help better understand the relation of the chemical intermixing with electrical performance of the cell.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveal accelerated Cu+ doping of the In2S3 buffer at 225 °C. Cu-depletion on CIGSe surface up to a few nanometers improves the cell performance. However, at higher annealing temperature of 275 °C, CuIn5S8 and Cu(InxGa1-x)5Se8 phases are formed which is detrimental for cell performance. Na diffusing from the CIGSe absorber segregates at the In2S3/CIGSe heterojunction. This actively suppresses the formation of charged antisites defects, lowering the recombination in the space charged region. Cu-depletion at CIGSe surface, Cu and Na diffusion in In2S3 and passivation of interfacial defect states by Na, giving an efficiency of 13.84% (14.83% with CdS-reference) for sputtered In2S3 buffer layers. Consequently, this work elucidates the chemistry of buried hetero-interfaces and their significance to improve the electrical performance of solar cells.

Improving Voc With Indium and Alkali Fluorides in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 Solar Cells Deposited at Low Temperature on Polyimide

Flexible, lightweight, Cu(In,Ga)Se2 photovoltaic technology is becoming more and more popular, thanks to the very high efficiencies already achieved (>20%) and to the possible employment of roll-to-roll deposition techniques, offering new application opportunities. In this paper, we aim to improve the understanding and performances of recently discovered new front surface engineering approaches. We show that the improvement of Voc generally observed using heavy alkali (below Na) can be boosted by adding indium during the alkali postdeposition treatments (PDTs). The obtained modification of the absorber using NaF/KF + In PDT leads to an improvement of Voc by 20 mV with respect to NaF/KF PDT and by almost 50 mV with respect to NaF-PDT only. The electrical performances of solar cells prepared with different PDTs are analyzed and discussed in light of structural and optical characterization data, supported by physical modeling. We show that KF PDTs modify the absorber over a thin region close to the surface, and also deep in the bulk of the film. Our results with KF show a record efficiency of 18.1% without antireflecting coating (ARC), a value that is close to the highest reported value of 20.4% (with ARC).

The Effect of Interface Cracks on the Electrical Performance of Solar Cells

Among a variety of solar cell types, thin-film solar cells have been rigorously investigated as cost-effective and efficient solar cells. In many cases, flexible solar cells are also fabricated as thin films and undergo frequent stress due to the rolling and bending modes of applications. These frequent motions result in crack initiation and propagation (including delamination) in the thin-film solar cells, which cause degradation in efficiency. Reliability evaluation of solar cells is essential for developing a new type of solar cell. In this paper, we investigated the effect of layer delamination and grain boundary crack on 3D thin-film solar cells. We used finite element method simulation for modeling of both electrical performance and cracked structure of 3D solar cells. Through simulations, we quantitatively calculated the effect of delamination length on 3D copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cell performance. Moreover, it was confirmed that the grain boundary of CIGS could improve the solar cell performance and that grain boundary cracks could decrease cell performance by altering the open circuit voltage. In this paper, the investigated material is a CIGS solar cell, but our method can be applied to general polycrystalline solar cells.