Date: 07/10/2009

NREL adopted Synopsys' Sentaurus TCAD to simulate solar cell performance

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has adopted Synopsys' Sentaurus TCAD to simulate solar cell performance characteristics.

The Sentaurus TCAD simulations provide insight into the physical mechanisms that drive solar cell performance, and also include the definition of the solar radiation incident on the cell, its reflection and transmission through anti-reflective coatings and surface texturing, and the absorption of the light and conversion to electrical current within semiconductor regions of the cell.

NREL has implementing Sentaurus TCAD to create polycrystalline thin-film CuInGaSe2, Cadmium telluride (CdTe), and silicon solar cell models. These models have illustrated how material properties, grain boundaries, non-uniformity and interdigitated designs affect both device performance and characterization.

"Solar cells are very complex, with many material layers and design trade-offs affecting major performance metrics such as efficiency," said Dean Levi, a principal scientist at NREL. "We view simulation as an important tool to understand the internal physics of our designs and to point towards ways to improve them."

"The photovoltaic industry is experiencing tremendous growth and continues to drive toward higher efficiency and innovative solar cell designs," said Howard Ko, general manager and senior vice president of the Silicon Engineering Group at Synopsys.