Interpretation of lock-in thermography on thin film solar cells implying dissipative and Peltier contributions

Abstract

We describe the measurement and modeling of lock-in thermograms of crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) thin film silicon solar modules for a range of bias voltages.For that purpose, a voltage series of lock-in thermograms for a single cell in the module is measured and compared to the area heat production distribution resulting from a Spice electronics simulation.The point spread function for the highly heat conductive layer on a thick glass substrate as well as Peltier effects at p + and n + contact holes are taken into account.This makes it possible to extract relevant cell performance parameters like the area diode saturation current and nonlinear edge shunting current densities.