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EXPERIMENT : 04
NO

TITLE : TO STUDY THE CHARACTERISTICS

OF A PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL

DATEOF : 5/03/2018
EXPERIMENT

GROUP Members :

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1. PURPOSE
The purpose of this experiment is to study the characteristics of a photovoltaic
cell. It also provides the practical Observations along with the conclusions drawn
at the end of the experiment.

2. THEORY
A photovoltaic cell is one which generates an EMF when light falls onto it.

One of the regions is made very thin (about one millionth of ameter,1μm).Light
can easily pass through this without much loss of energy. When the light reaches
the junction, at the depletion layer, it is absorbed and the released energy creates
hole-electron pairs which diffuse across the junction. The thin layer, which is only
lightly doped, rapidly becomes saturated and charge carriers can be released into
an external circuit to form a current, pushed around the circuit by the
force(electro- motive force, EMF, electron-moving-force)of the surplus of charge
carriers released by the energy absorbed.

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If the output of the cell is short circuited there will be no output voltage eat all,
since this will all be dropped internally across the resistance of the cell. The short
circuit output current obtained will vary from zero to maximum according to the
incident light.
The device can be used either as a voltage source or as a current source and is
inherently a linear device. To increase the output voltage, cells may be connected
in series. Parallel connection allows a greater current to be drawn. When used as an
energy source they are known as Solar Cells.
For the characteristic to be linear it is necessary for the light output of the lamp to be
of constant light frequency (spectral color) and for the light output(in lux) to be
directly proportional to the power input.

3. REQUIRED EQUIPMENT
IT-5927 Transducer and Instrumentation Trainer.
2mm Connecting Wires.

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4. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
Connect the circuit as shown below with the digital Voltmeter to measure the
Photovoltaic Cell output.

Switch ON the power supply and set the 10kΩ wire wound resistor to minimum for zero
Output voltage from the Power Amplifier.

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Task:
1. Take readings of Photo voltaic Cell Output Voltage as indicated on the digital
Voltmeter as the lamp voltage is increased in 1V steps. Record the results. in
Table.
2. Plot the graphs of Photovoltaic Cell Output Voltage against Lamp filament
voltage using MATLAB.
3. Find Output voltage when the Lamp Filament voltage is 7.5V by
interpolation/curve-fitting using MATLAB.

5. OBSERVATIONS AND READINGS

Filament Voltage (in volts) Output Voltage (in volts)

0.03 3.90
0.06 4.61
0.09 5.07
0.12 5.42
0.15 5.74
0.18 5.98
0.21 6.23
0.24 6.46
0.27 6.64
0.3 6.84
0.33 7.02
0.36 7.21
0.39 7.40
0.42 7.64
0.45 7.78

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Conclusion
By seeing the graph it is clear that by increasing the intensity of light the output
of the Photo Voltaic cell is also increased. So, we can say that the intensity of
light falls on the Photo Voltaic cell has a linear relation to its Output Voltage.

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