EE 4940 Homework 4

Spring 2009

Total points: 100 (each problem 20 pts)

Contents
1. Solution to n+p junction diffusion equation .......................................................................................... 1
2) Equivalent hyperbolic solution............................................................................................................. 2
3) Accounting for absorption ................................................................................................................... 2
4) Apply boundary conditions to #3 ......................................................................................................... 3
5) Parallel and series combination of two ideal diode solar cells .............................................................. 4

1. Solution to n+p junction diffusion equation

Simply find the second-derivative of the proposed solution and verify it solves the diffusion equation.

Plug it back in:

If

, this

is a valid solution:

With this constraint on L:

EE 4940 Homework 4

Thus

Spring 2009

is a solution to the diffusion equation.

2) Equivalent hyperbolic solution

Same thing, but now our exponentials are replaced with hyperbolic trig functions:

Note that:

Plugging these in to n(x):

We can see by comparing to the solution in #1 that:

and by extension this hyperbolic n(x) is also a solution, provided

3) Accounting for absorption

The proposed solution:

EE 4940 Homework 4

Spring 2009

(Aside: maybe you can see why people prefer the hyperbolic functionsno negative signs to keep track
of.)
Plug the 2nd-derivative into the diffusion equation:

Noting again that

Comparing this to our original guess

We can see that this is indeed a solution if:

4) Apply boundary conditions to #3

Now we apply boundary conditions to solve for the arbitrary constants A and B in the solution for #3 for
two separate cases. First, there is one shared boundary condition:
.

Thus
a)

.
at

This implies

, no recombination at rear surface

, based on the relation between S and

given. From #3, we have

this derivative as a function of x:

3

EE 4940 Homework 4

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Thus:

Plug in our result

b)

at

and solve for B:

, infinite recombination at rear surface

This implies

Again, plugging in

, not its derivative:

and solving for B:

5) Parallel and series combination of two ideal diode solar cells

Two pn-junction cells of equal area:

Ideal diode equation:

Well take n = 1 to make this a very ideal diode.

EE 4940 Homework 4

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a) Parallel combination

Note that the effective series resistance, , is the parallel combination of the two individual series
resistance parameters, but this doesnt really matter for our
and
calculations.
In the short-circuit condition, the currents simply sum:
The open-circuit condition is trickier, because the two current sources are shared among the two diodes.
We know that separately, the open-circuit voltage is due to the photo-generated current flowing
entirely through the internal diode (assuming infinite shunt resistance). Thus we can solve for of each
in the diode equation (actually well do it in terms of current densities, J):

When placed in parallel with an open-circuit, the voltage across each diode will be the same and

EE 4940 Homework 4

Spring 2009

Two equations, three unknowns (

). But we also know the total current flowing through the
diodes; that short-circuit current must be going somewhere with the circuit openit goes through the
two diodes:

Plugging the two diode current densities into the current sum:

Again, remember we neglected the shunt resistance to solve this.

b) Series combination

EE 4940 Homework 4
This time the open-circuit voltage simply adds,

Spring 2009
. There is no path for current

to flow to the opposite diode, so these two essentially remain independent.

The short-circuit current density is more-or-less limited to the minimum of the individual values, so
in this case. The excess current density must be chewed up somewhere inside the
cell since there is no path for it to get out.