Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.) has launched an online tool which analyzes solar photovoltaic (PV) cell materials and processing steps, offering estimates of efficiencies for the resulting cells.

"Impurities to Efficiency (I2E)" uses basic physics and a detailed computer simulation to predict how electricity-blocking iron particles will behave during the wafer-manufacturing process. The I2E website has been online since July 2011, and MIT estimates that users have already carried out roughly 2,000 simulations.


Tool to allow measurements for alternative manufacturing processes

MIT states that until the launch of I2E, estimating trade-offs involved in selecting the purity level of silicon wafers has largely been a trial and error process.

The university states that with the new tool, researchers can explore alternative manufacturing strategies by inputting descriptions of planned materials and manufacturing processes, and receive an indication of final solar cell efficiency in roughly one minute of simulation.

MIT notes that for the limitations presented by iron particles, the amount of iron, distribution and size of particles are all factors, which MIT states are both hard to predict and hard to measure.


Results tested by Synchrotron

The tool was developed by MIT Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Tonio Buonassisi and Graduate Student David Fenning and Douglas Powell, working with researchers from The Solar Energy Institute at the Technical University of Madrid (Madrid, Spain).

The team has also used an x-ray beam from a synchrotron at Argonne National Laboratory (Downers Grove Township, Illinois, U.S.) to confirm its simulations. Details of how the system works and examples of industrial impact will be revealed in a paper to be published in the journal Photovoltaics International.

Development of the I2E tool was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

2012-02-22| Courtesy: MIT | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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