While ray tracing of solar cells was established decades ago, ray tracing of entire modules has met obstacles, mainly because module optics are affected by geometric structures varying over a large scale of dimensions. In this paper, we introduce a ray tracing framework that is based on a modular structure made up of separate plugins. While existing plugins can be used for common effects such as light sources, absorption in materials, etc., specialized plug-ins can be written by users to handle problem-specific properties. We demonstrate the functionality of our approach by ray tracing a test module containing 9 crystalline Si solar cells. Good agreement between light-beam induced current (LBIC) measurements and ray tracing is achieved.
We report on the UV radiation hardness of photovoltaic modules with bifacial n-type Passivated Emitter and Rear Totally diffused crystalline Si cells that are embedded in an encapsulation polymer with enhanced UV transparency. Modules with front junction cells featuring an AlO x /p þ -type Si passivation interface at the illuminated side are stable for a UV irradiation dose of 598 kWh m À2 . In contrast, irradiating modules with back junction cells featuring an a-SiN y /n þ -type Si passivation interface at the illuminated side reduces the output power by 15%. The quantum efficiency of the a-SiN ypassivated module degrades in the spectral range between 300 and 1000 nm, which we ascribe to a degradation of the surface passivation. Modeling the experimental data shows that photons with an energy above 3.4 eV contribute to the degradation effect and enhance the front surface recombination current density by a factor of 15.
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