Fraunhofer ISE researchers developed a millisecond-scale electrical method to separately measure perovskite and silicon subcell currents in tandem solar cells using the silicon cell’s capacitive charge reservoir. The approach can be integrated into standard j–V testing without additional hardware, potentially enabling inline subcell current monitoring in mass production.
Researchers at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) have developed a purely electrical method to determine the currents of both subcells in perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells within milliseconds. The approach exploits the silicon bottom cell’s inherent capacitive charge reservoir.
“Perovskite-silicon tandem cells are moving fast toward mass production, but manufacturers have lacked a way to check the current balance between the two subcells at production speed,” research project lead Christoph Messmer told pv magazine. “Existing techniques such as spectral response or spectrometric analysis take hours and require complex optical setups, making them unsuitable for inline quality control. Our method closes this gap: It determines both subcell currents within milliseconds, using only the standard current-voltage test that is already performed on every cell.”
