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C
opper indium Physically, what happens is that the buffer doping through light soaking to achieve
gallium (di)sele- layer is photo-doped, which means that the ideal heterojunction conditions, while
nide (CIGS) is a the buffer layer becomes highly n-type, others are highly doped from the start and
I-III-VI2 semiconductor pinning the bands to the Fermi level . respond less to light soaking. Variations in
material composed of The effect of the barrier due to the CIGS band gap and the thickness of the
copper, indium, gal- buffer layer manifests itself in a degraded buffer layer also play an important role in
lium, and selenium. fill factor, with a curve shape that looks how quickly the light soaking effect im-
The CIGS modules con- similar to that of excess series resistance proves the module performance.
tain a thin film of a semiconductor called (lower Vmpp and lower slope around Voc).
Cu (In,Ga)Se2 or in short CIGS (Figure 1). The effect on the IV curve of a CIGS mod- Light Soaking In Other Device Types
This absorber layer is the key technology of ule is illustrated in Figure 2. With the ben- Amorphous Silicon
the CIGS module, and enables their smart eficial light soaking effect being connected Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is one of the ear-
looks, efficient energy conversion and high to absorption in the buffer layer, it is driven liest thin film PV technologies and exhib-
energy yield. Compared to conventional Si by the absorption of light at shorter wave- its a well-known light-induced degrada-
lengths. tion effect, in which efficiencies degrade
by ~10-30% in the first several hundred
hours of light soaking. The degradation is
due to the Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE),
first observed as a reduction in the dark
conductivity and photoconductivity of
a-Si:H after light exposure, wherein the
degradation is reversible by annealing at
technology, the CIGS layer is extremely high temperatures. The SWE occurs due
thin and the cells come out of manufac- to the recombination-induced breaking of
turing already connected in series with no weak Si-Si bonds by optically excited carri-
need for tabbing and stringing. ers after thermalization, producing defect
Figure 1: CIGS Device Structure Figure 2: IV curves for module before and after centres that lower carrier lifetime. Device
- Substrate light soaking
recovery occurs upon annealing as defects
are healed.
What is Light Soaking? The extent and time dependence of
The light soaking effect is related to the the light soaking effect depends primar- Cadmium Telluride (CdTe)
buffer layer of the solar cell. At the inter- ily on the dose of the blue light that the CdTe PV devices typically contain an n-type
face between the CIGS and the buffer lay- module receives and the initial state of the CdS buffer layer followed by a p-type CdTe
er a barrier for electrons is created, which buffer layer. Since the buffer layer is defect absorber layer and a back-contact metal-
inhibits transport of carriers from the CIGS doped, as opposed to the impurity doping lization layer for current collection. With
to the TCO Layer (Transparent Conducting used in conventional wafer based tech- long-term light exposure CdTe devices typ-
Oxides) and to the outside circuit. This bar- nologies, there is some variation in dop- ically exhibit performance degradation due
rier can be lowered due to incoming pho- ing within the process window. This means to detrimental permanent changes in the
tons that are absorbed in the buffer layer. that some modules need more photo- device. The diffusion of Cu ions away from
Conclusion
Metastable behaviour could be observed
in all investigated thin-film technologies
(CdTe, a-Si and CIGS). While a-Si and
CdTe mostly show degradation with light
absorption, CIGS shows improvement in
efficiency and module rated power dur-
ing initial light absorption. The increase in
power output is contributed to phenom-
enon called light soaking effect.
Device structure and buffer layer de-
sign contributes a lot to the light soaking
phenomenon. This feature of light soak-
ing is very useful for higher specific yields
(kWh/kWp). As a result of light soaking
the module output increases after instal-
lation in the field, this is like generating
more units from the same size of system
capacity. This will increase the return on
Investment and decrease the monetary
and energy payback time from a solar PV
plant.
Q-Cells thin-film Q.SMART module
technology is now the first in the entire
thin-film sector to achieve a solar module
efficiency of 17.4% (aperture area) and
harnesses a “light-soaking” effect to gen-
erate an average of 2.5 % power boost
above Nominal Power at Standard Test
Conditions when deployed in the field.
This contributes to higher return on invest-
ments and secures yields. With large scale
CIGS plants performing very well across
the globe, the technology is gaining share
in thin film market. One of the very good
features of CIGS technology is additional
power boost with light soaking.