On-site measurement of limiting subcell in multijunction solar devices

Abstract

It is well known that the response of any photovoltaic solar cell is dependent on the spectral characteristics of the incident radiation. This dependency is crucial in the output characteristics of a multijunction (MJ) cell where the spectral composition of the radiation determines the overall photocurrent produced, as either the top or the middle subcell will be limiting its response. The current mismatching between top and middle subcell is translated into energy losses, affecting the yield of the system. For research and commercial purposes it is interesting to measure accurately the incident solar radiation on a MJ cell, in terms of its spectral composition. This measurement will allows us to determine the photocurrent generated in each band of the multijunction device. Nowadays, the only way of measuring the photocurrent generated by each subcell is done with isotype cells or with spectroradiometers but there is no device capable of directly measuring each subcell photocurrent. In this paper it is described a device based on a commercial multijunction solar cell that is capable of measuring the direct irradiance for the top and middle bands thus it offers information of the limiting subcell (top or middle) in outdoors conditions. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.