Simulation of Solar Cell Efficiency using ATHENA and ATLAS

This dissertation is to report the simulation of solar cell using ATHENA and
ATLAS. The report is divided into three sections according to the objectives of
the project which are to simulate the P-N Junction Solar Cell, to detennine the
optical properties of the materials in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell and to simulate
the efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell at various titania, Ti02 particle size
using ATLAS.
Development of actual solar cell is costly. If the efficiency of the developed solar
cell is low, it will generate low power and hence uneconomical to be practically
used. Simulating the solar cell before the actual development of the solar cell can
help to avoid producing solar cell with low efficiency. In this project, the scope is
limited to basic P-N Junction Solar Cell and Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell. The P-N
Junction Solar Cell which is the First Generation Solar Cell has been developed
since 1954. Hence, the P-N Junction Solar Cell is very established and is used in
this project to familiarize with ATHENA and ATLAS. Next, the project is
continued to detennine the optical properties of the materials in the DyeSensitized
Solar Cell via absorption spectroscopy. The data is then used to obtain
the complex refractive index for the material in order to defme the properties of
the materials in the ATLAS. From the obtained data, the Dye-Sensitized Solar
Cell is then simulated using ATLAS.
The simulation of the basic P-N Junction Solar Cell shows that Boron doping
concentration, oxide layer thickness and metal contact area plays an important
role to increase the efficiency of the solar cell. However, the doping
concentration of Phosphorus does not significantly affect the solar cell
performance. Next, our work shows that the absorbance of the titania/dye layer is
optimum at titania particle size is around 20 nm. This results into higher values of
absorption coefficient and extinction coefficient. Also, our calculation has shown
that the titania particle size also affected the refractive index of the titania/dye
layer. Lastly, the simulation of the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell shows that the
efficiency of the solar cell is highest when the titania particle size is at 20 nm.
In order to verify our model of the Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell, we had measured
the IV characteristics of the actual Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell. The comparison
shows variations between the IV characteristics of the simulated Dye-Sensitized
Solar Cell and the actual solar cell. However, the results of the simulated and
actual cell show the same effect when the titania particle size is varied.