Modelling and simulation of photovoltaic solar cell using silvaco TCAD and matlab software

Abstract

In this paper, a modelling approach for a photovoltaic solar cell has been proposed which begins with the development of a solar cell up to enabling the solar cell to be implemented at circuit level simulations. This modelling approach is useful in the photovoltaic field to have an initial or overall observation on the effects toward the photovoltaic system. The modelling approach begins with modelling a thin film Cu(In, Ga)Se2(CIGS) solar cell using Silvaco TCAD (Technology Computer-Aided Design) software with a predefined baseline parameters. The electrical parameters as well as the I-V curve of the TCAD model are obtained and the data is exported to be post-processed in Matlab software. Key parameters of the TCAD model are used to develop an equivalent electrical model. The Single-diode model topology is implemented for simplicity. In order to test the validity of the single-diode model, the 1-V curve is compared to the 1-V curve of the TCAD model. As an extension, the 1-V curves are also presented across different temperatures in order to test the accuracy of the single-diode model. © 2018 IEEE.