The influence of a voltage ramp on the measurement of I–V characteristics of a solar cell

For efficiency and convenience the voltage applied to a Si solar cell is often fairly rapidly driven from zero to the open circuit value typically at a common rate of 1 V per millisecond. During this time the values of current are determined as a function of the instantaneous voltage thus producing an I-V characteristic. The present paper shows that the customary expressions for the current as a function of cell parameters still remain valid provided that the diffusion length in the expression for the dark current is changed from its steady state value L to the effective diffusion length L1 given by L1 = L(1 + qV/kT.tau) to the -1/2, where V is the ramp rate considered constant and tau is the lifetime of minority carriers. This result is true to a very good approximation provided that low level injection prevails.