Effects of leakage current on the short circuit current in the dual-junction solar cells

• DOI: 10.1007/s11082-014-9925-z
• Publication Date: 2014-04-08T07:38:03Z
• Authors: Y. R. Sun; K. L. Li; J. R. Dong; X. L. Zeng; S. Z. Yu; Y. M. Zhao; C. Y. Zhao; H. Yang
• Keywords: Leakage (economics)

The characteristics of short circuit current (I $$_\mathrm{sc})$$ in dual-junction GaInP/GaAs solar cells have been investigated, and the experimental results show that the photo current of GaInP top cell is higher than that of GaAs bottom cell and the I $$_\mathrm{sc}$$ of the device is usually not limited by GaAs bottom cell if a leakage current occurs. The current versus voltage (I–V) curves of the solar cell were simulated with subcells based on single diode model and the I $$_\mathrm{sc}$$ shows a dependence on the leaky subcells, i.e., the I $$_\mathrm{sc}$$ is between the photo current of GaAs and that of GaInP subcells in the case of a leaky GaAs subcell, it is equal to the photo current of GaAs subcell in the case of a leaky GaInP subcell, and it is lower than the photo current of GaInP subcell when both GaAs and GaInP subcells are leaky.