We present a holistic approach for the photovoltaic (PV) module frame improvement that considers mechanical, electrical, economic, and ecological aspects for different frame designs. In a comprehensive study, the approach is applied to exemplary PV module frame designs. The analyses performed in this study show a potential improvement path of the module frame design. This leads to an overall better module performance and helps finding the balance point between technical performance, cost, and environmental impact. Based on the results, the PV module frame design affects the aspects analyzed in this work differently. For the comparison, we defined reference frame design with 16 and 20 mm front and rear frame widths. The improvement is reached by unitizing the frame width for both sides to 18 mm and increasing its cavity width to 12 mm instead of 8.5 mm. Tuning the frame parameters in this way leads to the best balance point for frame designs in this study regarding all aspects. The mechanical finite element method (FEM) simulation results show that

The current–voltage measurement is the most important measurement in solar cell quality control. As the contacting process of cells results in mechanical stress and consumes a significant amount of measurement time, this work presents an IV characterization based on contactless measurements only. An empirical model is introduced that can derive the full IV curve and IV parameters as the open‐circuit voltage, short‐circuit current density, fill factor, and efficiency. As a basis, a series of photoluminescence and contactless electroluminescence images and spectral reflectance measurements are used. An advantage of the model's convolutional neural network design lies in the semantic compression of local image structures across the input data. Within an ablation study, it is shown that the empirical model is well suited to combine these data sources, which is the optimal input configuration for contactless IV derivation. The accuracy, e.g., with an error in efficiency of 0.035 % abs and correlation of over 99%, is similar to comparing two contacting IV measurement devices. The contactless IV curves also have a close fit to their contacted counterparts. Within simulations on module level, it is demonstrated that contactless binning performs as well as contacting binning and does not result in any additional mismatch loss.

Epitaxial integration of direct-bandgap III–V compound semiconductors with silicon requires overcoming a significant lattice mismatch. To this end, GaAsP step-graded buffer layers are commonly applied. The thickness and composition of the individual layers are decisive for the envisaged strain relaxation. We study GaAsP growth by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy in situ with reflection anisotropy spectroscopy. We find that the growth surface exhibits optical fingerprints of atomically well-ordered surfaces. These allow for tuning the interface preparation between adjacent layers. The spectral position of the characteristic peaks in the RA spectra, which are related to surface-modified bulk transitions, behaves similarly upon an increased As content as does the E1 interband transition of GaAsP at the growth temperature. The impact of strain on this shift is negligible. We thus monitor a bulk property via the surface reconstruction. An empiric model enables quantification of the As content of individual layers directly in situ without growth interruptions and for various surface reconstructions. Our findings are suitable for a simplified optimization of the GaAsP buffer growth for high-efficiency devices.

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