Structure of Solar Cell:

The most common types of materials to make solar cell are

crystalline-silicon, amorphous-silicon and thin-film
photovoltaics. Among the different materials, Crystalline-silicon
PVs (both mono and polycrystalline) currently offer the highest
efficiency, but also cost more. A Solar PV (Photovoltaic) system
is a power system that converts sunlight directly into electricity.
The basic building block of a PV sytem is the solar cell. The solar
cell is wired together to form a module and the module is then
wired together to form a solar panel. Modules come in
different sizes and typically has power output from about 20 to
300 watts in power output.
Manufacturers list the power output under "Standard Test
Conditions" (STC). It is not the same as real world conditions,
however. In actual real world environment, the energy

produced is typically 10-15% less.

Structure of Solar Cell:

A solar cell is a solid-state electrical device (p-n junction) that
converts the energy of light directly into electricity (DC) using
the photovoltaic effect. The process of conversion first requires
a material which absorbs the solar energy (photon), and then
raises an electron to a higher energy state, and then the flow of
this high-energy electron to an external circuit. Silicon is one
such material that uses such process. A solar cell structure is
shown in figure 1 and a solar panel configuration in figure 2.
Figure 1( A Solar Cell Structure)
Figure 2(Solar Panel Configuration)

P-N junction:- It is formed by joining p-type (high concentration

of hole or deficiency of electron) and n-type (high
concentration of electron) semiconductor material. Due to this
joining, excess electrons from n-type try to diffuse with the
holes of p-type whereas excess hole from p-type try to diffuse
with the electrons of n-type. Movement of electrons to the p-
type side exposes positive ion cores in the n-type side, while
movement of holes to the n-type side exposes negative ion
cores in the p-type side, resulting in an electron field at the
junction and forming the depletion region.
Light-generated current:- Generation of current in a solar cell,
known as the “light-generated current,” involves two important
processes.
Absorption of incident photons to create electron-hole pairs.
Electron-hole pairs will generate in the solar cell provided that
the incident photon has an energy greater than that of the
band gap. However, electrons (in the p-type material), and
holes (in the n-type material) are meta-stable and will only
exist, on average, for a length of time equal to the minority
carrier lifetime before they recombine. If the carrier
recombines, then the light-generated electron-hole pair is lost
and no current or power can be generated.
Collection of these carriers by the p-n junction prevents this
recombination by using a p-n junction to spatially separate the
electron and the hole. The carriers are separated by the action
of the electric field existing at the p-n junction. If the light-
generated minority carrier reaches the p-n junction, it is swept
across the junction by the electric field at the junction, where it
is now a majority carrier. If the emitter and base of the solar
cell are connected together (i.e., if the solar cell is short-
circuited), then the light-generated carriers flow through the
external circuit.