An explicit method to extract fitting parameters in lumped-parameter equivalent circuit model of industrial solar cells

Abstract An explicit parameter-extraction method is proposed to estimate the values of fitting parameters in lumped-parameter equivalent circuit model of industrial solar cells. The explicit method is based on polynomial fitting curves on Matlab platform, TCAD device simulation results of Silvaco Atlas, and experimental data of silicon-based solar cells’ current-voltage characteristics. Such an explicit parameter-extraction method can be directly applied into the analytical solutions to one-diode lumped-parameter equivalent circuit model to complete the simulations for electrostatic properties of solar cells. First, the current-voltage characteristics of industrial silicon-based solar cells are also derived analytically as the previous works completed by other researchers and the four key factors especially for the maximum power formula are solved through the effective diode approach. Second, polynomial curve is used to fit current-voltage characteristics from simulation and experiment results of solar cells under illumination. Third, the polynomial fitting result, the short circuit current, and the open circuit voltage are used to extract explicitly all of five parameters included in the one-diode lumped-parameter equivalent circuit model for industrial solar cells. Finally, the extracted fitting parameters are substituted into the analytical solution to current-voltage characteristics and the obtained current-voltage characteristics are compared with device simulation results from Silvaco Atlas and experimental data from silicon-based solar cells. As a result, such an explicit extraction procedure could be regarded as a fast and accurate method to estimate model parameters in industrial solar cells, which is important for not only photoelectric device simulations but also process analysis.