The influence of active cell design on a monolithic organic photovoltaic module: Fabrication and simulation

In this study, the influence of an active cell design on the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a monolithic organic photovoltaic (OPV) module was investigated using experimental methods and circuit simulation. For circuit simulation using computer simulation-based study, the organic PV cell was described by a circuit-based two-diode model and the modules were simulated under several conditions including shading effect, diode model parameters, series resistance and shunt resistance, etc. A unit organic PV cell as a reference device and four types of monolithic organic PV modules with different active cell length were fabricated together on the same glass substrate. The characteristics of the fabricated unit OPV cell were measured and the electrical parameters were extracted to use them for the simulation of four types of monolithic organic PV modules. To analyze the influence of OPV cell design on the PCE of monolithic organic PV modules, the current-voltage (I-V) characteristic curves and the PCEs of the four type monolithic OPV modules with different active cell length were obtained and compared with the simulated results. The simulated I-V curves were matched well with the measured I-V curves for the four types of monolithic organic PV modules with different active cell length. The highest PCE of the monolithic OPV module was 2.86 % with the active cell length of 11.6 mm. We expect that this work is meaningful to enhance the performance of a monolithic OPV module to a certain extent and it offers a method to design a high-efficiency large-area monolithic OPV module.