24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, 21-25 September 2009, Hamburg, Germany

ANALYSIS OF PV MODULES BY ELECTROLUMINESCENCE AND IR THERMOGRAPHY

Ulrich Hoyer, Alexander Burkert, Richard Auer, Claudia Buerhop-Lutz
Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern)
Am Weichselgarten 7, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Christian Vodermayer, Maurice Mayer, Gerald Wotruba
BEC-Engineering GmbH, An der Leiten 39, D-85652 Ottersberg,
ABSTRACT: Methods for the interpretation of the combination of different image guided infrared measurements of
PV modules are introduced. It is shown how certain defects that influence the series resistance or the short circuit
current, manifest themselves in the illuminated thermographic image for different loads corresponding to certain
states on the I-V characteristic. The thermal behavior of cells in a module in short circuit condition is explained. For
the verification of the methods 8 modules of a 4.5 year old PV generator were demounted and analyzed. Four of them
did show thermal aberrations during operation, while the other four did not. The defects were identified as shunts and
defects in the interconnection.
Keywords: IR Thermography, Electroluminescence, PV Modules

INTRODUCTION

Image guided analysis tools for solar cells have been

developed in the recent years. To the most successful one
belong those that use cameras which detect infrared (IR)
radiation of certain wavelengths. These methods can be
divided into two different groups because of their
physical origin. On the one hand there is radiation due to
temperature following the Plancks law, one the other
hand there is the emission of infrared light due to the
transition of electrons between certain states in the
semiconductor. The first group is summarized by the
name thermography, the second one by luminescence
[1][3][5]. The IR radiation can be excited i) by an
external current, called dark thermography and
electroluminescence, or ii) by applying light, that is
illuminated thermography and photoluminescence.
Those methods were used for the analysis of solar
cells immediately after the production. But defects that
originate from aging sometimes differ from those of the
production process.
Since the main constituents of PV modules are the
solar cells the image guided IR methods are also suitable
to analyze PV modules, if the main differences is given
the appropriate attention: in PV modules the cells are
covered by glass and plastic foil sheets, the area is
usually much bigger and, most importantly, the cells are
series connected.
These aspects lead to new effects on the images that
have to be considered for the right interpretation. In the
recent years handheld IR cameras, based on bolometer or
uncooled semiconductor detector, has become a widely
used tool to identify defective modules in an installed
solar generator. However the interpretation of the images
is difficult and not every hot spot refers to a defect.
This paper is to be a practical support for the
interpretation of IR images of PV modules. Paths are
shown to identify defects that cause the aberration in the
IR images. Because of their contactless and fast
feasibility the methods can be used to analyze aging
behavior, identify defective modules and even give strong
evidence of the defects origin.

MODELLING AND SIMULATION

2.1 Series connection of solar cells

Since a digital image is divided into several pixels,
every pixel corresponds to a part of the solar cell that is
parallel connected to the other parts, resp. pixels. In a PV
module the solar cells are series connected. According to
Kirchhoffs circuit law the current through every cell
must be the same. This leads to an equivalent circuit that
consists of parallel and series connected solar cells, as is
shown in Figure 1.
Cell 1
Pixel 1

Pixel 2

Pixel n

Cell N

Figure 1: Equivalent circuit of a PV module. The series

connected cells consist of parallel connected pixels. The
one diode model is used; each pixel has its own series
and parallel resistance.
Cells in a module are usually sorted by their
maximum power point (MPP) current and no value is set
on the short circuit current. Especially if cell cracking
occurs and parts of the cell are separated, the short circuit
current decreases. This results into operating points of the
single cells under illumination out of their short circuit
current, even if the module itself is in short circuit
condition. Some exemplary schematic I-V curves of
single cells are plotted in Figure 2 showing, that some
cells are operated in positive voltage direction while
others exhibit a negative voltage, thus consuming instead

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of producing power. The extreme example of the green

line represents a broken cell with reduced Isc leading to a
working point in the breakdown regime.

2.3 Heat development

In this chapter a formula is deduced to calculate cell
temperatures. Based on a temperature of an initial state
the temperature of a second state is to be calculated,
where additional power is converted.
In a PV module the incident solar radiation is
converted into electricity, heat and a small part is
reflected. Heat is dissipated by air convection and
radiation. For a rough estimation of the PV modules
thermal behavior the air convection is considered to be
constant over the entire area. The heat radiation of the
cell can be calculated by the Stefan-Boltzmann law:
( 1)
Where is the emissivity, A the hot area, T resp.
TAmbient are the cell and ambient temperatures and is the
Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
To calculate the temperature rise of one cell in the
case that additional energy arrives in the cell, e.g. at the
change from open to short circuit, cell breakage or
shading, two temperatures are important: T1 as the
temperature of the first state, T2 as the temperature of the
second state. Likewise P1 is the power of the first state
that is converted into heat, and P is the additional
power of state 2. So, for the relation between power and
temperature the ambient temperature cancels out:
( 2)

Icell
Isc

U
Figure 2: The I-V curves of the single cells show
different short circuit currents. In the modules short
circuit state (blue horizontal line) some of the cells are
operated in positive others in negative voltage direction.
2.2 Power loss in the series resistance
Inside of a cell the discrete areas, represented by the
pixels, are parallel connected. In this case the voltage is
the same for every pixel, after Kirchhoffs law and the
currents split according to the resistance combinations of
the diodes and resistors. If all parts with low series
resistance rS are combined to one and all parts with high
RS into one part the equivalent circuit the equivalent
circuit is depicted in Figure 3. The parallel resistance is
neglected.

A module that was in operation for several years was

returned to the dealer because of a considerable power
loss. The module was subjected to thermographic,
electroluminescent and I-V characteristic measurements.
By opening the back sheet several cell were contacted to
measure the voltage of the single cells during operation.
Additionally, a solar generator was investigated
during operation with an IR camera. 4 conspicuous
modules and 4 non-conspicuous modules for comparison
were demounted and characterized with thermography
and electroluminescence.

rS

RS

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

3.1 Dark measurements

Dark measurements refer to all measurements where
no light is applied to the specimen but an external
current. Current is applied to the module in forward
direction. This is one of the biggest differences to the
case where current is generated by incident light, where
the current flows in the opposite direction. Another
important difference is the voltage drops at the resistance
in the case of external voltage, thus leaving less voltage
for the diode itself. This leads e.g. to differences in the
electroluminescence intensity for areas with higher RS
compared to photoluminescence images. [3] The
radiative transition rate and therefore the EL intensity
depending on the applied voltage is described by the van
Roosbroeck-Shockley relation [4].
The equivalent circuit shown in Figure 1 reveals that
for low voltages and currents, when the threshold voltage
of the diode is not reached yet, the current flows only
through the parallel resistance RP and the series
resistance RS. Since usually RP>>RS, the heating in this
state can be accounted to shunted areas. The same is true
for reverse direction.
For increasing current the diode opens up and a
bigger part of the current flows through the diode itself

Figure 3: Simulation of the electrical power consumed in

the low and high series resistance parts of a solar cell
depending on the entire cell current.
To calculate the power, that is annihilated in the
series resistances in a solar cell during operation, a
simulation was done of a 5 cell with a short circuit
current of 4 A, that consists of two parts. An area with
58 cm has a high series resistance of RS= 2.0 cm, and
an area of 100 cm with a low resistance value of
rS= 0.2 cm is assumed. In Figure 3 the simulated
power loss normalized with the corresponding cell area in
dependence of the entire cell current is shown. It can be
seen, that with increasing cell current the distance of the
power loss between the two cell parts accelerates and in
the high resistance part clearly more power is annihilated.
At low cell current little power is transformed into heat in
the resistances.

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bypassing the shunts, thus heating up the diode and the

series resistance.

voltage means that the cell is consuming the power that is

produced by other cells. The measured temperature of the
cell is 56.2C. Applied to formula (2), using 42C as
starting temperature, the active area A=2(12.6 cm) for
front and back side of the cell and an emissivity of 0.9
this leads to an additionally consumed power of
P=3.08W. The current through the module was
I= 4.1 A, thus the voltage is V=P/I=-0.75V. This is in
good accordance with the measured value of Vmeas=-0.6V.

3.2 Illuminated measurements

Illuminated measurements refer to the methods where
an electrical current is generated by incident light. The
measurement of photoluminescence in modules is not
practical as a huge illumination apparatus is needed with
a wavelength << luminescence wavelength to distinguish
exciting and luminescence light. For thermography the
sun is a very appropriate light source with high intensity
and excellent homogeneity. All images shown in this
paper are in thermal equilibrium.
For the case of the analyzed defective module 12
different voltage states in the range of the I-V
characteristic from open to short circuit were measured
with the IR camera using an adjustable ohmic resistor. If
modules are measured during operation with an inverter
only the state of the maximum power point (MPP), is
accessible. 8 modules were measured with an IR camera
in this state and the results compared to
electroluminescence and dark thermography.
4

a)

Figure 5: a) Illuminated thermographic image of the

module in open ciruit and b) electroluminescence image

RESULTS

4.1 Illuminated Thermography 3 different features

IR images of a defective module have been taken
during illumination by the sun for different loads. Three
different effects were observed: i) areas with increased
temperature that correspond to the shape of a cell or parts
of a broken cell, appearing only for U<Umpp, ii) punctual
hot spots with no relation to the cell shape for UUmpp,
and iii) areas with increased temperature during the
complete voltage range.
a) A1

B C D E

b)

While measuring the cells voltages in module short

circuit condition a strong fluctuation especially for the
cells with increased temperature was observed. Due to
the low slope of the I-V characteristic near the short
circuit current small variations of the environmental
conditions can cause large variations in the voltage [3].
4.1.2 Punctual hot spots for UUMPP
Apart from the heated cells there appear punctual hot
spots in the short circuit thermographic image (Figure
4a), e.g. cell B4, C6. They are still visible in the MPP
state and disappear in open circuit operation (Figure 5a).
A close look to the EL image reveals no correlation with
the brighter spots in the EL image besides the spot in cell
B4. Not too much emphasis should be taken on the EL
intensities, because it is known that the intensity depends
exponentially on the local voltage.

b)

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Figure 4: Illuminated thermographic images for a) U=0V

and b) U=UMPP.
4.1.1 Hot cells for U<UMPP
In short circuit condition a pattern occurs where
every cell has a different temperature. This pattern
vanishes with increasing voltage until the MPP. The
voltage of cell B9 e.g., which was measured by physically
contacting it, shows a negative voltage of UCell=-0.6 V.
The voltage was also highly fluctuating. The cells with a
lower temperature of ~42C, e.g. D6, C7, show a voltage
between +100 and +250 mV with less fluctuations. That
means, as shown in Figure 2 that due to their different
single short circuits the cells are operated in different
states on their I-V characteristic. Cell B9 has a reduced
active area due to cracking, as can be seen in the EL
image (Figure 5b), and therefore a lower ISC. A negative

Figure 6: Dark thermographic image for the applied

current I=ISC and measured and data sheet I-V
characteristic for comparison.
This kind of defect shows the behavior of a cell with
a high series resistance part. The simulation shown in
Figure 3 reveals that for a cell the power losses in the
regions with increased series resistance are much higher
than in the rest of the cell. The power is converted into
heat. Approaching open circuit the current decreases,
leading to lower power losses because of the quadratic
dependency of the power on the current. Consequently,

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the open circuit image (Figure 5a) shows no heating due

to increased series resistance.
The dark thermographic image for high current shows
increased heating at the same spots. Increased
temperature in the high current dark thermographic image
refers to increased serial resistance. The defect described
in this chapter therefore can clearly be ascribed to areas
with increased series resistance.

40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Figure 8: EL image (left) and low current dark

thermographic image (right) of cells with shunt stripes at
the edges.

4.1.3 Hot spots independent of current

The hot spots of cell D8 and D10 show no
dependency on the load resistance. It is assured that they
do not originate from reflections or other measurement
errors. This effect is not fully understood yet.

The measured power of all modules is at least 20%

below the label value. Three examples and the data sheet
value are shown in Figure 9. Some graphs show a step,
meaning that the modules consist of non-matched cells.
The position of the step is not correlated with the number
of cells with the feature described in 4.2a). All I-V curves
show a certain slope near short circuit, which means a
decreased parallel resistance. This shunt in the modules
I-V curve can be ascribed to the cells with shunted stripes
at the edges due to a lack of edge isolation or starting
corrosion.

4.1.4 Effect on the I-V characteristic

The module has only 63% of the data sheet value.
The I-V characteristic (Figure 6b) show that the
efficiency loss originates more from the decreasing fill
factor than from a loss in photo current.
4.2 Analysis of a PV generator
A PV generator that was installed 5 years ago was
measured with an IR camera during operation. 4 modules
that showed thermal irregularities and for comparison 4
regular modules were demounted.
Two characteristic features for almost all modules
can be distinguished:
a) Decreased electrical contact between bus bar and
interconnect (Figure 7). The current is forced to flow
through the other bus bar, leading to a higher local
current density and therefore increased heat development
and EL intensity. This defect is an effect of aging or
corrosion and can be observed in different stages of its
temporal development.

Figure 9: STC I-V characteristics of selected modules in

comparison with the data sheet value.
5

CONCLUSION

It was shown, that by the combination of several IR

measurement methods typical defects in crystalline Si PV
modules and their influence on the I-V curve can be
explained. The thermal behavior of the cells was traced
back to their electrical properties. In the case of sun
illuminated thermography several defects can be
distinguished by varying the electrical load. Hot spots
that disappear by increasing the voltage from 0 to UMPP
originate from the different ISC of the single cells. Hot
spots that disappear towards UOC can be ascribed to areas
of increased series resistance.
During the investigation of a PV plant modules
containing shunted cells were detected. These modules
also contained several cells with loss in electrical contact
of the interconnects. This defect was visible in different
aging stages for different cells.
The image guided infrared methods are well suited
for the investigation of PV modules; nevertheless further
work is needed for a complete understanding of the
defects and their thermal luminescent behavior.

Figure 7: Assumed aging or corrosion defects in

different manifestations. The first line shows the EL
image, the second the corresponding high current dark
thermography of different cells.
b) Cells that exhibit a darker stripe at one edge in the
EL image, which corresponds well with a slight
temperature rise in the dark thermographic image at low
current. As can be seen in the equivalent circuit (Figure
1) in the case of reduced parallel resistance a part of the
current flows through the shunt, leaving less current to
flow through the diode, which leads to a reduced EL
intensity. In chapter 3.1 it was mentioned that dark
thermographic images with low current show the heat
development due to decreased shunts. So, it can clearly
be said, that these features mean areas of decreased
parallel resistances, probably due to poor edge isolation.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Part of this work was supported by Deutsche
Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).
6

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