A simple and efficient solar cell parameter extraction method from a single current-voltage curve

In this work, a simple and efficient method for the extraction of all the parameters of a solar cell from a single current-voltage (I-V) curve under the constant illumination level is proposed. With the help of the Lambert W function, the explicit analytic expression for I is obtained. By reducing the number of the parameters, the expression for I only depends on the ideality factor n, the series resistance R(s), and the shunt resistance R(sh). This analytic expression is directly used to fit the experimental data and extract the device parameters. This simple solar cell parameter extraction method can be directly applied for all kinds of solar cells whose I-V characteristics follow the single-diode model. The parameters of various solar devices including silicon solar cells, silicon solar modules, dye-sensitized solar cells, and organic solar cells with standalone, tandem, and multi-junction structures have been successfully extracted by using our proposed method. (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3632971]