Solar Cells Simulation using Lumerical Tools (Part 3 - Lumerical Heat)
Introduction
In this session, we will explore a numerical multi-physics simulation with a focus on solar cells. We will utilize Lumerical tools to simulate various materials and geometries.
Setting Up the Simulation
Materials and Geometry
- Start with the base material, which is aluminum, with a geometry of 14 micrometers.
- Define the wire span as 1 micrometer and select aluminum CRC.
- For aluminum, there are two parts: the electric part and the heat part.
- Aluminum's electronic property includes a work function of 4.2 electron volts.
- Thermal properties include heat transport and specific heat.
- Silicon is used as an ideal material with a y-span of 3 micrometers.
- Anti-reflection coating is made of silicon nitride with a thickness of 70 nanometers.
Mesh Order
- Silicon nitride has a mesh order of 3.
- Silicon has a mesh order of 2, meaning it takes precedence in overlapping regions.
Emitter and Additional Materials
- The emitter material is silver, with a geometry of 0.5 micrometers and an excess span of 2 micrometers.
- Silicon dioxide (SiO2) is also included, with a mesh order of 5.
Simulation Region
The simulation region is defined as a 2D structure with the following parameters:
- Active region length: 9 micrometers (silicon).
- Total length: 10 micrometers.
- Simulation region includes base, silicon, anti-reflection coating, emitter, and SiO2.
Boundary Conditions and Heat Source
- Boundary conditions include convection at the top of the device with a temperature of 300 Kelvin.
- The heat source is imported from Lumerical FDTD with a geometry of 9 micrometers by 3 micrometers.
Monitoring and Output
- Monitors are added to observe temperature changes.
- The output is saved as TNAP Solar Planner.mat.
Conclusion
By setting up the simulation with these parameters, we can observe a temperature increase of approximately 30 degrees in specific regions. This setup allows us to perform further simulations and analyses using Lumerical tools.
Solar cells simulation using Lumerical tools (Part 3 - Lumerical Heat) So, let's open a numerical multi-physics environment. This is a solar cell example. We will start with the heat solver. What we need is to add some material and geometry, like the FDTD solver.
We will add a region that we want to simulate. For the material, let's start with the base. In the base side, if you remember, our base is aluminum. The geometry is 14 micrometers. In the simulation region side, I will describe the exact number that we want to simulate.
For the wire span, it is one micrometer. I select aluminum CRC. To define aluminum, click on the base. You will see two parts for aluminum: electric and heat. To add a material to the material side, click on the thermal part and select aluminum. You can change the color if you want.
In the thermal property, you will see the heat transport property and specific heat. Click on the equation to see the formula that shows how it depends on the heat. Next, we have the silicon material. The geometry y span is three micrometers.
Regarding the silicon ideal, we have other kinds of silicon that include bulk and surface effects. For this reason, I want to ignore those kinds of effects and concentrate on just silicon ideal. Now, let's add the anti-reflection coating. The material is 70 nanometers, and it is silicon nitride.
The mesh order of silicon nitride is 3. If there is overlap between silicon nitride and silicon, the solver will consider silicon as the simulation material. Next, we have the emitter. The material is silver, and the geometry is open, with a 5-micrometer width and a 2-micrometer excess span.
In this region, we have three materials: anti-reflection coating, SiO2, and silver. The simulation will consider silver as the top priority material. Regarding our geometry, we will consider the simulation region as the green rectangular. The length is 9 micrometers, and the width is 3 micrometers.
The overall length is 10 micrometers. In the simulation region, the material is clear. We have base, silicon, anti-reflection coating, and the emitter. The material of each case changes when we collect the data. For the heat side, the simulation region is a steady-state.
We want to do thermal simulation, and the simulation is 2D. The surrounding part environment is closed, and the geometry starts from 0 to 10 micrometers. The mesh constraint is 50 nanometers. We need to add a temperature of 300 Kelvin at the top of the device.
We will select surface-to-surface convection as the boundary condition. For the monitor case, we add some monitors as 2DZ normal. We add some monitors to the surface and the surface. We want to save the output about temperature as the TNAP solar planner. In this geometry, we have different domains.
Domain 2 is for silver, domain 3 is for SiO2, domain 4 is for SiSn (silicon), and domain 1 is for aluminum. Regarding the temperature, if we open the temperature, we will see an increase in temperature in this region. Now, we can go and do the simulation for the solar cell.
