Emerging photovoltaic technologies, including organic and hybrid perovskite solar cells, require faster and more flexible characterization tools to keep pace with increasingly complex materials and device architectures. Conventional systems often require separate equipment to evaluate parameters such as power conversion efficiency and external quantum efficiency.
This limits the speed and versatility of material screening, especially in advanced applications such as tandem solar cells, indoor photovoltaics, building-integrated photovoltaics and agrovoltaics.
To address this need, researchers from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona developed a spectral shaper illumination device capable of generating tunable spectra on demand for advanced photovoltaic characterization.
The device works by splitting a broadband incoming light beam into its spectral components using special prisms and custom-made mirrors. The separated beam then passes through a spatial filter stage, where the intensity of each wavelength range can be modified independently.
After filtering, the beam is recombined to provide either a spatially separated “rainbow” beam or a spectrally shaped and spatially homogeneous beam. This enables both lateral-tandem solar cell illumination and areal illumination with a customized spectrum.
The system combines several characterization functions in a single setup, including solar simulation, power conversion efficiency measurement, external quantum efficiency analysis, light-intensity recombination loss assessment and indoor efficiency testing.
A system prototype was demonstrated in an operational environment. The next development steps focused on automating the filter and integrating all components into a single device to bring the system closer to market.
Benefits:
- Spectrum generation on demand.
- Broadband to narrowband illumination control.
- Combined solar simulator and EQE system.
- Faster photovoltaic material screening.
- Advanced tandem solar cell characterization.
- Suitable for PV, photodegradation and photocatalysis research.
The represented institution is looking for a collaboration that leads to commercial exploitation of the presented invention.
Institution: Xarxa d’R+I+D Energy for Society (XRE4S) & Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB)
TRL: 5
Protection Status: International Patent Application
Contact: Begoña Iborra | biborra@viromii.com