Open-Circuit Voltage

< Short-Circuit Current Fill Factor >

The open-circuit voltage, VOC, is the maximum voltage available from a solar cell, and this
occurs at zero current. The open-circuit voltage corresponds to the amount of forward bias on the
solar cell due to the bias of the solar cell junction with the light-generated current. The open-
circuit voltage is shown on the IV curve below.

IV curve of a solar cell showing the open-circuit voltage.

An equation for Voc is found by setting the net current equal to zero in the solar cell equation to
give:

Open Circuit Voltage Calculator 1

1e-10 0.5
Dark Saturation Current, I0 = A Light Generated Current, IL = A Ideality Factor, n =
1 300
Temperature, T = K
0.578
Open Circuit Voltage, VOC = V
The above equation shows that Voc depends on the saturation current of the solar cell and the
light-generated current. While Isc typically has a small variation, the key effect is the saturation
current, since this may vary by orders of magnitude. The saturation current, I0 depends on
recombination in the solar cell. Open-circuit voltage is then a measure of the amount of
recombination in the device. Silicon solar cells on high quality single crystalline material have
open-circuit voltages of up to 730 mV under one sun and AM1.5 conditions, while commercial
devices on multicrystalline silicon typically have open-circuit voltages around 600 mV.

The VOC can also be determined from the carrier concentration 1:

where kT/q is the thermal voltage, NA is the doping concentration, Δn is the excess carrier
concentration and ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration. The determination of VOC from the
carrier concentration is also termed Implied VOC.

Open Circuit Voltage Calculator 2

1.5e16 1e15
Doping Concentration, NA = cm-3 Excess Carrier Concentration, Δn = cm-3
298 8.6e9
Temperature, T = K Intrinsic Carrier Concentration, ni = cm-3
0.667
Open Circuit Voltage, VOC = V

Voc as a Function of Bandgap, EG

Where the short-circuit current (ISC) decreases with increasing bandgap, the open-circuit voltage
increases as the band gap increases. In an ideal device the VOC is limited by radiative
recombination and the analysis uses the principle of detailed balance to determine the minimum
possible value for J0.

The minimum value of the diode saturation current is given by 2:

where:
Evaluating the integral in the above equation is quite complex. The graph below uses the method
outlined in 3 

Diode saturation current as a function of band gap. The values are determined from detailed
balance and place a limit on the open circuit voltage of a solar cell.

The J0 calculated above can be directly plugged into the standard solar cell equation given at the
top of the page to determine the VOC so long as the voltage is less than the band gap, as is the
case under one sun illumination.
VOC as function of bandgap for a cell with AM 0 and AM 1.5. The VOC increases with bandgap as
the recombination current falls. There is drop off in VOC at very high band gaps due to the very
low ISC.

Short-Circuit Current
< IV Curve Open-Circuit Voltage >

The short-circuit current is the current through the solar cell when the voltage across the solar
cell is zero (i.e., when the solar cell is short circuited). Usually written as ISC, the short-circuit
current is shown on the IV curve below.
IV curve of a solar cell showing the short-circuit current.

The short-circuit current is due to the generation and collection of light-generated carriers. For an
ideal solar cell at most moderate resistive loss mechanisms, the short-circuit current and the
light-generated current are identical. Therefore, the short-circuit current is the largest current
which may be drawn from the solar cell.

The short-circuit current depends on a number of factors which are described below:

 the area of the solar cell. To remove the dependence of the solar cell area, it is more
common to list the short-circuit current density (Jsc in mA/cm2) rather than the short-
circuit current;
 the number of photons (i.e., the power of the incident light source). Isc from a solar cell
is directly dependant on the light intensity as discussed in Effect of Light Intensity;
 the spectrum of the incident light. For most solar cell measurement, the spectrum is
standardised to the AM1.5 spectrum;
 the optical properties (absorption and reflection) of the solar cell (discussed in Optical
Losses); and
 the collection probability of the solar cell, which depends chiefly on the surface
passivation and the minority carrier lifetime in the base.

When comparing solar cells of the same material type, the most critical material parameter is the
diffusion length and surface passivation. In a cell with perfectly passivated surface and uniform
generation, the equation for the short-circuit current can be approximated as:
where G is the generation rate, and Ln and Lp are the electron and hole diffusion lengths
respectively. Although this equation makes several assumptions which are not true for the
conditions encountered in most solar cells, the above equation nevertheless indicates that the
short-circuit current depends strongly on the generation rate and the diffusion length.

Silicon solar cells under an AM1.5 spectrum have a maximum possible current of 46 mA/cm2.
Laboratory devices have measured short-circuit currents of over 42 mA/cm2, and commercial
solar cell have short-circuit currents between about 28 mA/cm2 and 35 mA/cm2.

In an ideal device every photon above the bandgap gives one charge carrier in the external circuit
so the the highest current is for the lowest bandgap.

Illuminated Current and Short Circuit Current (IL or Isc ?)

IL is the light generated current inside the solar cell and is the correct term to use in the solar cell
equation. At short circuit conditions the externally measured current is Isc. Since Isc is usually
equal to IL, the two are used interchangeably and for simplicity and the solar cell equation is
written with Isc in place of IL. In the case of very high series resistance (> 10 Ωcm2) Isc is less than
IL and writing the solar cell equation with Isc is incorrect.

Another assumption is that the illumination current IL is solely dependent on the incoming light
and is independent of voltage across the cell. However, IL varies with voltage in the case of drift-
field solar cells and where carrier lifetime is a function of injection level such as defected
multicrystalline materials.

Fill Factor
< Open-Circuit Voltage Efficiency >

The short-circuit current and the open-circuit voltage are the maximum current and voltage
respectively from a solar cell. However, at both of these operating points, the power from the
solar cell is zero. The "fill factor", more commonly known by its abbreviation "FF", is a
parameter which, in conjunction with Voc and Isc, determines the maximum power from a solar
cell. The FF is defined as the ratio of the maximum power from the solar cell to the product of
Voc and Isc. Graphically, the FF is a measure of the "squareness" of the solar cell and is also the
area of the largest rectangle which will fit in the IV curve. The FF is illustrated below.

Graph of cell output current (red line) and power (blue line) as function of voltage. Also shown
are the cell short-circuit current (Isc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) points, as well as the
maximum power point (Vmp, Imp). Click on the graph to see how the curve changes for a cell with
low FF.

As FF is a measure of the "squareness" of the IV curve, a solar cell with a higher voltage has a
larger possible FF since the "rounded" portion of the IV curve takes up less area. The maximum
theoretical FF from a solar cell can be determined by differentiating the power from a solar cell
with respect to voltage and finding where this is equal to zero. Hence:
giving:

However, the above technique does not yield a simple or closed form equation. The equation
above only relates Voc to Vmp, and extra equations are needed to find Imp and FF. A more
commonly used expression for the FF can be determined empirically as:1

where voc is defined as a "normalized Voc":

Fill Factor Calculator 1

0.6 1 300
Open Circuit Voltage, VOC = V Ideality Factor, n = Temperature, T = K
23.188 0.8274
Normalized VOC , voc = V Fill Factor, FF =

The above equations show that a higher voltage will have a higher possible FF. However, large
variations in open-circuit voltage within a given material system are relatively uncommon. For
example, at one sun, the difference between the maximum open-circuit voltage measured for a
silicon laboratory device and a typical commercial solar cell is about 120 mV, giving maximum
FF's respectively of 0.85 and 0.83. However, the variation in maximum FF can be significant for
solar cells made from different materials. For example, a GaAs solar cell may have a FF
approaching 0.89.

The above equation also demonstrates the importance of the ideality factor, also known as the
"n-factor" of a solar cell. The ideality factor is a measure of the junction quality and the type of
recombination in a solar cell. For the simple recombination mechanisms discussed in Types of
Recombination, the n-factor has a value of 1. However, some recombination mechanisms,
particularly if they are large, may introduce recombination mechanisms of 2. A high n-value not
only degrades the FF, but since it will also usually signal high recombination, it gives low open-
circuit voltages.
A key limitation in the equations described above is that they represent a maximum possible FF,
although in practice the FF will be lower due to the presence of parasitic resistive losses, which
are discussed in Effects of Parasitic Resistances. Therefore, the FF is most commonly
determined from measurement of the IV curve and is defined as the maximum power divided by
the product of Isc*Voc, i.e.:

Fill Factor Calculator 1

0.611 2.75
Open-circuit voltage, Voc = V Short-circuit current, Isc = A Voltage at max power,
0.500 2.59
Vmp = V Current at max power, Imp = A
0.7707
Resulting fill factor, FF =

Effect of Temperature
< Impact of Both Series and Shunt Resistance Effect of Light Intensity >

Like all other semiconductor devices, solar cells are sensitive to temperature. Increases in
temperature reduce the band gap of a semiconductor, thereby effecting most of the
semiconductor material parameters. The decrease in the band gap of a semiconductor with
increasing temperature can be viewed as increasing the energy of the electrons in the material.
Lower energy is therefore needed to break the bond. In the bond model of a semiconductor band
gap, reduction in the bond energy also reduces the band gap. Therefore increasing the
temperature reduces the band gap.

In a solar cell, the parameter most affected by an increase in temperature is the open-circuit
voltage. The impact of increasing temperature is shown in the figure below.
The effect of temperature on the IV characteristics of a solar cell.

The open-circuit voltage decreases with temperature because of the temperature dependence of
I0. The equation for I0 from one side of a p-n junction is given by;

where:
q is the electronic charge given in the constants page;
D is the diffusivity of the minority carrier given for silicon as a function of doping in the Silicon
Material Parameters page;
L is the diffusion length of the minority carrier;
ND is the doping; and
ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration given for silicon in the Silicon Material Parameters page.

In the above equation, many of the parameters have some temperature dependance, but the most
significant effect is due to the intrinsic carrier concentration, ni. The intrinsic carrier
concentration depends on the the band gap energy (with lower band gaps giving a higher
intrinsic carrier concentration), and on the energy which the carriers have (with higher
temperatures giving higher intrinsic carrier concentrations). The equation for the intrinsic carrier
concentration is;

where:
T is the temperature;
h and k are constants given in the constants page;
me and mh are the effective masses of electrons and holes respectively;
EGO is the band gap linearly extrapolated to absolute zero; and
B is a constant which is essentially independent of temperature.

Substituting these equations back into the expression for I0, and assuming that the temperature
dependencies of the other parameters can be neglected, gives;

where B' is a temperature independent constant. A constant ,, is used instead of the number 3 to
incorporate the possible temperature dependencies of the other material parameters. For silicon
solar cells near room temperature, I0 approximately doubles for every 10 °C increase in
temperature.

The impact of I0 on the open-circuit voltage can be calculated by substituting the equation for I0
into the equation for Voc as shown below;

where EG0 = qVG0. Assuming that dVoc/dT does not depend on dIsc/dT, dVoc/dT can be found as;

The above equation shows that the temperature sensitivity of a solar cell depends on the open
circuit voltage of the solar cell, with higher voltage solar cells being less affected by temperature.
For silicon, EG0 is 1.2, and using  as 3 gives a reduction in the open-circuit voltage of about 2.2
mV/°C;

The short-circuit current, Isc, increases slightly with temperature, since the band gap energy, EG,
decreases and more photons have enough energy to create e-h pairs. However, this is a small
effect and the temperature dependence of the short-circuit current from a silicon solar cell is;
The temperature dependency FF for silicon is approximated by the following equation;

The effect of temperature on the maximum power output, Pm, is;

300 K or 25 °C ?

Most semiconductor modelling is done at 300 K since it is close to room temperature and a
convenient number. However, solar cells are typically measured almost 2 degrees lower at 25 °C
(298.15 K). In most cases the difference is insignificant (only 4 mV of Voc) and both are referred
to as room temperature. Occasionally, the modelled results need to be adjusted to corrolate with
the measured results.

Temperature - Intrinsic Carrier Concentration Calculator

298
Temperature, T = K
Intrinsic Carrier Concentration, ni= cm-3

At 300 K, ni = 1.01 x 1010 cm-3 and kT/q = 25.852 mV

At 25 °C (298.15 K), ni = 8.6 x 109 cm-3 and kT/q = 25.693 mV

Efficiency
< Fill Factor Detailed Balance >
The efficiency is the most commonly used parameter to compare the performance of one solar
cell to another. Efficiency is defined as the ratio of energy output from the solar cell to input
energy from the sun. In addition to reflecting the performance of the solar cell itself, the
efficiency depends on the spectrum and intensity of the incident sunlight and the temperature of
the solar cell. Therefore, conditions under which
efficiency is measured must be carefully controlled in order to compare the performance of one
device to another. Terrestrial solar cells are measured under AM1.5 conditions and at a
temperature of 25°C. Solar cells intended for space use are measured under AM0 conditions.
Recent top efficiency solar cell results are given in the page Solar Cell Efficiency Results.

The efficiency of a solar cell is determined as the fraction of incident power which is converted
to electricity and is defined as:

where Voc is the open-circuit voltage;

where Isc is the short-circuit current; and
where FF is the fill factor
where η is the efficiency.

In a 10 x 10 cm2 cell the input power is 100 mW/cm2 x 100 cm2 = 10 W.

Efficiency Calculator
0.611 3.5
Open Circuit Voltage, VOC = V Short Circuit Current, ISC = A Fill Factor, FF =
0.7 10
Input Power, Pin = W
1.1762 14.9695
Maximum Power, Pmax = W Efficiency, η = %