Accuracy of inline IV measurements under industrial conditions

In this paper the precision of the current measurement of an inline IV-tester with flash lamp is determined. To evaluate the repeatability and the impact of cell positioning on the overall repeatability a group of equally processed mc-Si solar cells was used. These measurements show that the contacting has a very small influence on the repeatability of the short circuit current measurements, which demonstrates the precision of the automation. To investigate the influence of the spectral mismatch as calculated from the spectral irradiance data supplied by the manufacturer on the absolute value of the short circuit current, four series of measurements with different reference cells were performed on solar cells processed equally. The measurements show a wide deviation of the absolute values of the short circuit current depending of the reference cell used. These differences cannot be explained by the calculated spectral mismatch alone.