Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

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Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solmat

Dependence of multi-junction solar cells parameters on concentration

and temperature
Assaf Ben Or, Joseph Appelbaum n
Tel Aviv University, School of Electrical Engineering, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 9 May 2014
Received in revised form
5 July 2014
Accepted 7 July 2014
Available online 2 August 2014

The dependence of InGaP/GaAs/Ge multi- junction solar cell model parameters on concentration and
temperature are of interest to solar cell manufacturers. These parameters are related to cell processing
and materials. In this work, the cell parameters were estimated by curve tting of the experimental IV
characteristics to the single diode model equation of the multi-junction cell. The dependence of the cell
parameters on light concentration and temperature is shown. Based on the estimated parameters, the
performance of multi-junction cells and concentrated photovoltaic arrays under different solar
irradiances and temperatures may be predicted.
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Multi-junction solar cell parameters
Parameter estimation
Dependence of cell parameters on
temperature and concentration

1. Introduction
Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) systems based on high efciency multi-junction (MJ) solar cells are among the promised
technologies for large scale solar electricity production. Modeling
the IV characteristic equation of solar cells is an important tool
for the investigation of the performance of solar cells and arrays
under different irradiance, temperature and solar spectrum.
The IV characteristic equation is an analytical expression which
describes the relation between the electrical parameters of the cell
and the current and voltage of the cell terminals. The use of the
conventional lump-parameter single-diode model of the solar cell
to predict the IV characteristic equation of MJ cells at different
temperatures and irradiances is reported in [1,2]. This model was
used also to investigate the dependence of MJ cell performance on
spectrum [3,4]. An extended model based on the ve parameter
model and an additional term which describes the operation of the
bypass diode connected to each cell, as in CPV arrays, was shown
in [5].The extended model may be used for the analysis of IV
characteristics of CPV dense arrays.
The single diode model equation of InGaP/GaAs/Ge MJ solar cell
was used, in the present study, to estimate the ve parameter
values of the solar cell. NewtonRaphson algorithm was applied in
the curve tting procedure where the minimum error between
the measured IV cell characteristic and the theoretical cell
equation served as the quality for the estimated parameters [6].

Corresponding author. Tel.: 972 3 6409014; fax: 972 3 640 7052.

E-mail address: appel@eng.tau.ac.il (J. Appelbaum).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2014.07.010
0927-0248/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The measured IV characteristics pertain to concentration of 350,

555,700 and 900 Sun and temperature of 10 1C, 25 1C, 80 1C and
95 1C. The results of the estimated parameters show a clear and a
monotonic dependence of the parameter values on light concentration and on cell temperature. Based on the results, the dependence of the ll factor and the cell efciency on concentration and
temperature is also shown.
It should be emphasized that parameter estimation of solar
cells based on optimization methods may lead to a local minimum.
Different initial parameter values may result in different estimated
parameter values. Therefore, there is no condence in obtaining
the global minimum, although the estimated parameters may have
physical meanings. Adding to the procedure for estimating the
parameters the notion of monotonic behavior of the parameters
on different concentrations and temperatures is important to
obtain condence in the results.

2. Parameter estimation of multi-junction solar cellsSingle

diode model
The conventional ve parameter model (single diode model)
was used to estimate the parameters of the solar cell. The model is
described by
I I ph  I 0 eV IRs =V T n  1 

V IRs
Rsh

where, I and V are the terminals current and voltage, respectively,

Iph is the photo-generated current, I0 is the diode reversed
saturated current, n is the ideality factor of the diode, Rs and Rsh

A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

are the series and shunt resistances, respectively, and VT is the

thermal voltage. A MJ cell consists of several sub-cells (three
subcells in triple-junction solar cell). Each sub-cell can be
described by a ve parameters model, therefore the parameters
in Eq. (1) represent equivalent parameters of a MJ cell [7,8].

235

12
I-V Fitted
I-V Measured

10

3. Curve tting procedure

The NewtonRaphson algorithm was applied for curve tting
between the measured and the theoretical IV characteristics at
different concentrations and temperatures. The detailed algorithm
is described elsewhere [6]. Since the convergence of the algorithm
is very sensitive to initial parameter values, these values must be
chosen carefully. In this study the initialization of the parameters
is performed as described in [5]. Because the measurements
contain relatively large errors near the short circuit current and
the open circuit voltage, these measurements were excluded in
the estimation process.

4. Results
Curve tting was performed on the measured IV characteristics of MJn solar cells under four light concentrations: 350, 555,
700 and 900 Sun at cell temperatures of 10 1C, 25 1C, 80 1C and
95 1C. A very good t was achieved for all cell measurements.
A comparison between the measured to the tted IV characteristic
for concentration of 900 Sun at 95 1C is shown in Fig. 1, as an
example. The results prove that the single diode model may be used
to describe the IV characteristic of a MJ solar cell at different
concentrations and temperatures. Although the model is an analytical expression and does not necessarily describe accurately
physical mechanisms inside the cell, some of the equivalent cell
parameters may have practical values.

Current [A]

8
6
4
2
0

0.5

1.5
Voltage [V]

2.5

Fig. 1. Measured and tted IV characteristic of MJ cell at 900 Sun and 95 1C.
n
Data provided courtesy by Spectrolab Inc.

limits the cell efciency [11] and leads to a decrease of the total
carrier lifetimes p/n and, as a result, to an increase of I0. Therefore,
the increase of n might be related to the increase in the Auger and
radiative recombination mechanisms.
The dependence of the Rs and Rsh on the light concentration is
shown in Fig. 2d and e. As the light concentration increases, the
values of Rs and Rsh decrease. The Rs is strongly dependent on the
resistance of the semiconductor layers, on the contact resistance at
the semiconductormetal interface, on the resistance of the metal
gridlines, as well as on the tunnel diodes resistivities [12]. The
reduction of Rs with the light concentration may be explained by
the change in the material resistivity. The resistivity (the inverse
of the conductivity ) is given by [13]
1

1=qn n p p

4.1. Dependence of solar cell parameters on light concentration

Based on the proposed curve tting procedure, the dependence
of the estimated parameters on the light concentration was
studied. Fig. 2a shows a linear dependence of Iph on light
concentration, E, as expected [9]:
I ph E I ph E0 

E
E0

where, E0 1 Sun 1000 W=m2 . The increase of Iph with light

concentration is higher for high temperatures due to the reduction
of the subcells bandgap resulting in a higher absorption. The
saturation corrent, I0 (Fig. 2b) and the ideality factor, n (Fig. 2c)
increase with light concentration. The I0 and n of a solar cell are
directly related to equivalent recombination processes in the cell
(space charge recombination, bulk recombination and surface
recombination) [10]. A solar cell with a higher recombination
(lower carriers lifetimes) has larger I0 and n. The reverse saturation
current, I0, of an ideal pn diode is given by [10]
s !
s
Dp n2i
Dn n2i

3
I0 q
p N D
n N A
where q is elementary charge, A is the cross-sectional area, Dp and
Dn are the diffusion coefcients of holes and electrons, respectively, NA and N D are the donor and acceptor concentrations at the
n and p sides, respectively, ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration
of the semiconductor material, and p and n are the carrier
lifetimes of holes and electrons, respectively. As the light concentration increases, the recombination processes are enhanced,
especially the radiatiave and Auger recombination. This eventually

where n and p are the electron and hole concentration and n and
p are the electron and hole mobility (material dependent),
respectively. As light concentration increases, the charge carriers
concentration of electron and holes increases as well and, therefore the material resistivity and hence the series and shunt
resistance, decrease. The decrease of the shunt resistanceRsh is a
result of higher leakage currents at high light concentration [14].
4.2. Dependence of solar cell parameters on cell temperature
Temperature affects the ve parameter model equation in two
ways: directly, via the explicit T in the exponential term, and
indirectly via the change in the parameters with temperature.
The dependence of Iph on temperature is shown in Fig. 3a. The
equivalent Iph of the cell is inuenced from the light absorption, i.
e., charge carrier generation in the cell. As the temperature
increases the bandgaps, Eg(T), of all subcells shrink as described
by Varshnis empirical expression [13]
Eg T Eg 0 

T 2
T

where, Eg(0), and are material constants. Therefore, since Eg(T)

decreases, more photons have the sufcient energy to create
electronhole pairs and therefore Iph increases. The value of I0
increases exponentially with tempearture (Fig. 3b) mainly due to
the increase in the intrinsic carrier concentration, ni [15], as shown
in Eq. (3). The intrinsic carrier concentration [15] is given by
ni Ns e  Eg =2kB T

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A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

Fig. 2. Dependence of cell parameters on light concentration: (a) Iphphoto-generated current, (b) I0reverse saturation current, (c) n-ideality factor, (d) Rsseries resistance,
and (e) Rshshunt resistance.

where, Ns p T 3=2 is the number per unit volume of the effectively

available states. Its value depends on the material (the order of
1019 cm  3 at room temperature) and increases with temperature.
In addition, the intrinsic carrier concentration, ni, is strongly

inuenced from the reduction in the bandgap energy (see Eqs.

(5) and (6)), i.e., with the lowering of bandgaps, the concentration
of the intrinsic carrier increases. As for the recombination process
in the solar cell, the temperature inuences mainly on the

A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

237

Fig. 3. Dependence cell parameters on cell temperature: (a) Iphphoto-generated current, (b) I0reverse saturation current, (c) n-ideality factor, (d) Rsseries resistance, and
(e) Rshshunt resistance.

ShockleyReadHall (SRH) and the surface recombination rates

[16]. This may explain the decrease in n, which is strongly related
to the recombination mechanisms, with temperature as shown in
Fig. 3c.
The dependence of Rs and Rsh on temperatures is shown in
Fig. 3d and e. There are three types of thermal sensitive resistances
[17]: conductor type, negative temperature coefcient type and

positive temperature coefcient type. The conductor type follows:

RT R0 1 T

where is the conductor temperature coefcient ( 40) and R0 is

the resistance at a reference temperature. The negative (Eq. (8))
and the positive (Eq. (9)) temperature coefcient types are

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A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

described by:
RT R0 expB=T

RT R0 expB  T

where B is the semiconductor material coefcient (B4 0). Therefore, Rs which is inuenced by the metal conductors and the
semiconductor resistivity of the material, behaves according to
Eqs. (7) and (8). At lower concentration (350 Sun), the change of
the Rs with the temperature is the highest. As mentioned before, at
lower light concentration the charge carrier mobility is also low
and therefore, as the cell temperature rises, the increase in the
resistance is more pronounced. A positive coefcient type (Eq. (9))
behavior of Rs is reported in [17].
Concerning Rsh, (see Fig. 3e) it was found that an increase in
temperature leads to a decrease in Rsh (dRsh/dTo 0). Therefore, the
shunt resistance behaves according to the Eq. (8). Rsh models
conductivity paths through the solar cell or on the cell edges
caused by crystal damages or metallization spikes through the pn
junction mainly due to manufacturing defects [18]. As the temperature increases the inuence of all these shunt defects
increases and the Rsh tends to degrade (decrease) leading to higher
shunt currents [2,4].
4.3. Dependence of ll factor and cell efciency on light
concentration and cell temperature
Based on the tted parameters, the ratio between Vm (the maximum power voltage) and Voc (the open circuit voltage), Vm/Voc, cell ll
factor (FF) and the efciency were calculated. The dependence of Vm/
Voc on light concentration and cell temperature is shown in Fig. 4. This
ratio maybe of interest to the CPV array designer. According to Eq. (1),
V oc at E0 (1 Sun) is obtained by


I ph E0
V oc E0

1
V oc E0 nE0 V T ln
I E R E I E
 0 0  sh 0 0 0
I ph E0
10
 nE0 V T ln
I 0 E0
With light concentration, Voc increases as follows:


 


I ph E0
I ph E0
nCE0 V T ln
lnC
V oc CE0 nCE0 V T ln C
I 0 CE0
I 0 CE0
11
where C is the concentration ratio and I 0 CE0 in the reverse
saturation current affected by the concentration. The ratio Vm/Voc

decreases slightly with the light concentration, due to the inuence of Rs on Vm. Although Rs decreases with concentration, the
voltage drop, ImRs, increases due to higher Im (maximum power
current) thus reducing Vm. The decrease in Voc with increasing
temperature arises mainly from I0 which increases exponentially
with increasing T. The reduction of Vm with the temperature is
more signicant since it is inuenced also from the increase of Rs.
Therefore the ratio Vm/Voc decreases eventually with temperature.
The Fill Factor (FF) is a measure of the quality of the solar cell.
The dependence of FF on the light concentration and cell temperature is shown Fig. 5. FF decreases linearly with the temperature and concentration ratio in a very similar way as the ratio Vm/
Voc since the ratio Im/Isc is very close to unity (as Rsh c 1).
Additional information about the FF dependence of MJ solar cells
on light concentration and temperature may be found in [19,20].
The ideal ll factor FF' is dened as [21], [Ch.2]
FF 0

V m  Im
V oc  I sc

12

where, I sc is the short circuit current.

The real ll factor is strongly determined by the series resistance Rs of the solar cell, especially under concentrated light. The
efciency at E0 taking into account the series resistance is given by
[21], [Ch.2]

E0

V oc E0 I sc E0 FF ' E0  Rs E0 I 2m E0
P in E0

13

where P in E0 is the incident power on the cell at irradiance E0 .

The dependence of the cell efciency on the light concentration
and temperature is shown in Fig. 6. This dependency is a function
of many parameters:

CE0

V oc E0 nCE0 V T lnCCI sc E0 FF 0 CE0  Rs CE0 CI m E0 2

CP in E0
V oc E0 I sc E0 FF 0 CE0 Rs CE0 CI 2m E0 nCE0 V T I sc E0 FF 0 CE0 lnC
P in E0

14
At high temperatures (80 1C and 95 1C) the efciency increases
slightly with the light concentration. However, at low temperatures (10 1C and 25 1C), the highest efciency is obtained for
concentration ratio of 555 Sun.
The change in the cell efciency with the light concentration is
rather small (7 0.5%), therefore, for the analyzed ranged of
concentration no clear conclusion can be drawn. As for the

Fig. 4. Dependence of the Vm/Voc on (a) light concentration and on (b) temperature.

A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

239

Fig. 5. Dependence of the Fill Factor on (a) light concentration and on (b) temperature.

Fig. 6. Dependence of cell efciency on (a) light concentration and on (b) cell temperature.

temperature dependence, the cell efciency decreases linearly

with the cell temperature (about 1% per 20 1C), as shown in
Fig. 6. The reduction of the cell efciency with temperature is
mainly due to the reduction in the output voltage of the cell
(Rs and I 0 increase and ndecreases).

5. Conclusions
Curve tting of IV characteristics was performed to obtain the
parameter values of InGaP/GaAs/Ge MJ solar cell under different
light concentration (350900 Sun) and temperatures (1090 1C).
These parameters are related to cell processing and materials and,
therefore are of interest to solar cell and CPV system manufacturers. The study shows that, Iph increases; I0 increases; n
increases; Rs decreases and Rsh decreases with the increase in
concentration. As for the temperature dependence, Iph increases;
I0 increases; n decreases; Rs increases and Rsh decreases with the

increase in temperature. The change in the model parameters with

the light concentration and temperature is explained by their
relations to the physical and material parameters of the solar cell.
Based on the estimated parameters, the performance of multijunction cells and CPV arrays as a function of solar irradiance and
temperature may be predicted.
It should be emphasized that parameter estimation of solar
cells based on optimization methods may lead to local minima.
Therefore, there is no condence in obtaining global minima.
However, adding the notion of monotonic behavior of the estimated parameters on concentrations and temperatures may be an
important indication to obtain condence in the results.

Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge Spectrolab Inc. for providing
solar cell data.

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A. Ben Or, J. Appelbaum / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 130 (2014) 234240

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