PC1DMOD 6

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PC1Dmod 6.2

PC1Dmod 6.2 is an unofficial, modified version of PC1D.

PC1Dmod 6.2 has a similar user interface to PC1D but it extends the device physics by

implementing Fermi–Dirac statistics, which is relevant in regions of high doping like solar cell emitters;
adding a list of state-of-the-art models for c-Si, including models for injection-dependent band-gap narrowing, carrier mobility, intrinsic recombination, and more;
updating the numerical constrictions and node density to fit better with modern computers.

PC1Dmod 6.2 can be used with a simple configuration file to specify which physical models to use. The parameter files are backwards compatible with previous PC1D versions, and by selecting Boltzmann statistics and the original PC1D models, the program gives the same results as PC1D 5.9. The extensions have been successfully verified against Sentaurus and EDNA, but not for all possible scenarios, so use them with care. Please send bugs and suggestions to halvard.haug@gmail.com.

cmd-PC1D 6.2

cmd-PC1D 6.2 is a command-line version of PC1Dmod 6.2.

It uses the same physics kernel but runs only from a command line, thus adding flexibility for users who want to perform simulation within a programming script.

cmd-PC1D 6.2 is the basis for a new graphical user interface called "PC1D for Matlab".

PC1Dmod 6.2 and cmd-PC1D 6.2 can be run on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. Mac and Linux are not supported.


Download:	▪
	▪	PC1Dmod6.2.2 source code
Authors:		Halvard Haug (IFE)
		New models implemented in collaboration with Achim Kimmerle and Johannes Greulich (Fraunhofer ISE)
References:	▪	PC1Dmod 6.2 help file.
	▪	H. Haug and J. Greulich, "PC1Dmod 6.2 – Improved simulation of c-Si devices with updates on device physics and user interface," Energy Procedia, 2016.
	▪	H. Haug, J. Greulich, A. Kimmerle and E.S. Marstein, "PC1Dmod 6.1 - state-of-the-art models in a well-known interface for improved simulation of Si solar cells," in preparation for Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, available online, 2015.
	▪	H. Haug, A. Kimmerle, J. Greulich, A. Wolf and E.S. Marstein, "Implementation of Fermi-Dirac statistics and advanced models in PC1D for precise simulations of silicon solar cells," Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, available online, 2014.
	▪	H. Haug, B. R. Olaisen, Ø. Nordseth and E. S. Marstein, "A graphical user interface for multivariable analysis of silicon solar cells using scripted PC1D simulations," Energy Procedia, 38, pp. 72–79, 2013.

PC1Dmod 6.2

Download and extract the zip archive.
Add the files to your PC1D folder to work with existing projects.
Run PC1Dmod6-2.exe.

How to use cmd-PC1D and the associated conversion programs

Set up the simulation parameters and the device structure. The original PC1D interface or PC1Dmod6.1 can be used for this.
Convert the .prm files to ascii text for editing:
convert_prm_to_ascii.exe filename.prm filename.txt
Change parameters by editing the text version of the parameter file, which is now called filename.txt. For a single-region simulation, each parameter will always correspond to a specific line number.
Convert the text file back to the .prm format:
convert_ascii_to_prm.exe filename.txt filename.prm
Use one of the cmd-PC1D programs to run the simulation:
cmd-pc1d5.exe filename.prm (original PC1D)
cmd-pc1d6-1.exe filename.prm (modified PC1D)
To run batch simulations with a batch file, use the following syntax:
cmd-pc1d5.exe filename.prm batchfile.txt (original PC1D) *
* cmd-PC1D6-1 does not support batch simulations at the moment, but this will hopefully be fixed in a future update. Batch simulations must therefore be done using a loop, or within the PC1D for Matlab GUI.
The output from cmd-PC1D is a column vector of x-data followed by up to four column vectors of y-data. The type of output data can be defined in two ways:
1. By using the original GUI, use "Graph" -> "Defined" under the main file menu.
2. By directly modifying the .prm file.
The description field of the .prm file (the second line in the corresponding .txt file) is used to specify a file location for the configuration file, which may be used to specify which physical models to use. See PC1Dmod6.1 help for details.

Physical models for PC1Dmod6.1

A complete list of the new models that have been implemented in PC1Dmod6.1 is presented in the table below. The models have been selected with much care and to best knowledge of the authors, but please note that these do not necessarily represent a final, fully correct and consistent set of models for simulation of Si solar cells. However, the framework for including new models and specifying which models and parameters to use is now in place, and additional options for models will therefore be included in future versions.


Model	Symbol	Reference
Intrinsic carrier density	n_i,0	Altermatt et al. 2003	[1]
		+ Sproul and Green 1993	[2]
Intrinsic energy band gap	E_g,0	Green 1990	[3]
Effective density of states, conduction band	N_c	Green 1990	[3]
Effective density of states, valence band	N_v	(adjusted to match n_i,0)
Bandgap narrowing	ΔE_c, ΔE_v	Schenk 2014	[4]
		Yan & Cuevas 2013	[5]
		Yan & Cuevas 2014	[6]
Carrier mobility	μ_n, μ_p	Klaassen 1992	[7,8]
		Schindler 2014	[9]
Intrinsic recombination	U_intr	Richter et al. 2012	[10,11]
		Kerr and Cuevas 2002	[12]
Incomplete ionization of dopants	N_A–A, N_D+	Altermatt 2006 *	[13,14]
Front surface recombination	S_p,n(N_surf)	Altermatt 2003 *	[15]
Numerical approximations for:
Fermi integral	u=F_1⁄2(η)	Van Halen and Pulfrey 1985	[16]
Inverse Fermi integral	η=f_1⁄2(u)	Antia 1993	[17]

* New models introduced in version 6.2.


[1]	P. P. Altermatt, A. Schenk, F. Geelhaar, and G. Heiser, "Reassessment of the intrinsic carrier density in crystalline silicon in view of band-gap narrowing," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 93, no. 3, p. 1598, Feb. 2003.
[2]	A. B. Sproul and M. A. Green, "Intrinsic carrier concentration and minority-carrier mobility of silicon from 77 to 300 K," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 73, no. 3, p. 1214, Feb. 1993.
[3]	M. A. Green, "Intrinsic concentration, effective densities of states, and effective mass in silicon," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 67, no. 6, p. 2944, Mar. 1990.
[4]	A. Schenk, "Finite-temperature full random-phase approximation model of band gap narrowing for silicon device simulation," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 84, no. 7, p. 3684, 1998.
[5]	D. Yan and A. Cuevas, "Empirical determination of the energy band gap narrowing in highly doped n+ silicon," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 114, no. 4, p. 044508, 2013.
[6]	D. Yan and A. Cuevas, "Empirical determination of the energy band gap narrowing in p+ silicon heavily doped with boron," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 116, no. 19, p. 194505, Nov. 2014.
[7]	D. B. M. Klaassen, "A unified mobility model for device simulation—I. Model equations and concentration dependence," Solid. State. Electron., vol. 35, no. 7, pp. 953–959, 1992.
[8]	D. B. M. Klaassen, "A unified mobility model for device simulation—II. Temperature dependence of carrier mobility and lifetime," Solid. State. Electron., vol. 35, no. 7, pp. 961–967, 1992.
[9]	F. Schindler, M. Forster, J. Broisch, J. Schön, J. Giesecke, S. Rein, W. Warta, and M. C. Schubert, "Towards a unified low-field model for carrier mobilities in crystalline silicon," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, vol. 131, pp. 92–99, Dec. 2014.
[10]	A. Richter, S. W. Glunz, F. Werner, J. Schmidt, and A. Cuevas, "Improved quantitative description of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon," Phys. Rev. B, vol. 86, no. 16, p. 165202, Oct. 2012.
[11]	P. P. Altermatt, F. Geelhaar, T. Trupke, X. Dai, A. Neisser, and E. Daub, "Injection dependence of spontaneous radiative recombination in c-Si: experiment, theoretical analysis, and simulation," NUSOD ’05. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Numerical Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices, 2005. pp. 47–48, 2005.
[12]	M. J. Kerr and A. Cuevas, "General parameterization of Auger recombination in crystalline silicon," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 91, no. 4, pp. 2473–2480, Feb. 2002.
[13]	P. P. Altermatt, A. Schenk, and G. Heiser, "A simulation model for the density of states and for incomplete ionization in crystalline silicon. I. Establishing the model in Si:P," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 100, no. 11, p. 113714, 2006.
[14]	P. P. Altermatt, A. Schenk, B. Schmithüsen, and G. Heiser, "A simulation model for the density of states and for incomplete ionization in crystalline silicon. II. Investigation of Si:As and Si:B and usage in device simulation," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 100, no. 11, p. 113715, 2006.
[15]	P. P. Altermatt, J. O. Schumacher, A. Cuevas, M. J. Kerr, S. W. Glunz, R. R. King, G. Heiser, and A. Schenk, "Numerical modeling of highly doped Si:P emitters based on Fermi–Dirac statistics and self-consistent material parameters," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 92, no. 6, p. 3187, Aug. 2002.
[16]	P. Van Halen and D. L. Pulfrey, "Accurate, short series approximations to Fermi–Dirac integrals of order −1/2, 1/2, 1, 3/2, 2, 5/2, 3, and 7/2," J. Appl. Phys., vol. 57, no. 12, p. 5271, 1985.
[17]	H. M. Antia, "Rational Function Approximations for Fermi-Dirac Integrals," Astrophys. J. Suppl., vol. 84, pp. 101–108, 1993.

J0e and QSSPC simulations

From version 6.2 PC1Dmod includes a few new output options, as described in the change log. Some of these calculations depend on a specific set of excitation conditions. In order to prevent users from getting wrong results these results will therefore only available using certain excitation files. PC1Dmod6.2 simply checks the name of the external excitation file, so users may still make changes to the excitation settings, but are warned to do this with care. Example .prm and .exc files are distributed together with the program.

Output	Excitation file
J_0e	j0e_calc_n_type_emitter.exc
ρ_sheet	or
x_junction	j0e_calc_p_type_emitter.exc
τ_eff (Δn)	qsspc_pulse.exc

For additional details on the simulations, see "H. Haug and J. Greulich, "PC1Dmod 6.2 – Improved simulation of c-Si devices with updates on device physics and user interface", Energy Procedia, 2016 (to be published)

PC1Dmod

PC1Dmod v6.2.2 (Jan-2018)

Fixed an error in the free carrier absorption (FCA) parameters used in the default Si material file, which caused slightly too low current in the simulations. The n-type coefficient is now changed to the correct value of 2.85e-26.

PC1Dmod v6.2.1 (Apr-2016)

Added a parameterization for the temperature and injection dependence of the radiative recombination coefficient to the Richter2012 model for intrinsic recombination.
Added finely resolved solar spectra also for AM1.5D and AM0
Added a few optional excitation settings for QSSPC simulations

PC1Dmod v6.2 (Mar-2016)

Added a new model for incomplete ionization of dopants (Altermatt 2006), with parameters for B, P, As, Al and Ga.
A new default AM1.5g solar spectrum is distributed together with this version. The spectrum is obtained from the IEC norm, with a spectral range from 300 to 4000 nm evenly sampled in 5 nm wavelength intervals. The resulting generation profile is verified against Sentaurus device.
Added an option for including a parameterization of the front side surface recombination velocity parameters S_0n and S_0p as a function of the surface dopant concentration.
Added new calculations of output values, both in the result section and as batch parameters. These include the emitter recombination current density J_0e, emitter sheet resistance ρ_sheet, injection-dependent effective carrier lifetime τ_eff (Δn) and several values calculated from the IV curve (J_sc, FF, P_(d,max), J_mpp and V_mpp). Some of these results are calculated assuming certain excitation conditions, and are therefore only available when using specific excitation files distributed together with the program.
The source code for PC1Dmod 6.2 and cmd-PC1D 6.2 has now been merged to avoid having to update the code for each program separately.

Version 6.1.1 (7-July-2015)

Resolved issue where PC1Dmod would not converge for solar cells incorporating internal/external elements. By changing the excitation setting "time step at t=0" to 1 s. the programs will now converge in most cases. The excitation setting files ONE-SUN.EXC and SCAN-QE.EXC and the example parameter files have been changed accordingly.

Version 6.1 (March 2015)

The kernel of cmd-PC1D 6.0 including the physical models is implemented in a modified version of the PC1D 5.9 graphical user interface.
The bandgap narrowing according to Yan and Cuevas is implemented as alternative to Schenk’s parameterization.
Schindler’s extension for compensated silicon of Klaassen’s parameterization of the carrier mobility is implemented.
Specification of new physical models and parameters can now be done using a configuration file, available from the parameter section of the program.
Added an option for setting an external SRH file using the configuration file.
Updated parameter section and menus to indicate whenever one of the original models and parameters are not in use.
Increased maximum number of elements per region.
Increased maximum file size and transient lengths.
Increased initial meshing density for external doping profiles.
Updated help section to refer to this file.
Changed colour theme for parameter section and graph section.

cmd-PC1D

Version 6.1 (March 2015)

Updated with the same changes in the device physics as for PC1Dmod 6.1.

Version 6.0 (March 2014)

Several major changes in the device physics. Only a short bullet list is given here, please see section "physical models" and the SolMat 2014 paper (pending publication) for more details and full references.

Added Fermi-Dirac statistics (set as standard, Boltzmann statistics can still be used)
Added new model for band gap narrowing (Schenk 1994)
Added new model for carrier mobility (Klaassen 1992)
Added new parameterizations for Auger recombination (Richter et al. 2012, Kerr and Cuevas 2002)
Added updated values for the (temperature dependent) intrinsic carrier density (Altermatt et al. 2003) and energy band gap (Green 1990)
Added new standard value for Nc/Nv ratio, calculated by modifying Nv to match the intrinsic carrier density above
Added possibility to choose between different models and parameters by modifying the description field of the .prm file (see "how to use cmd-PC1D" for details)

PC1D for Matlab

Version 2.1 (March 2015)

Removed dropdown menus for definition of physical models, as these are now handled by a separate configuration file. Added buttons to select, edit and remove configuration files instead.
The program had to be recompiled using Matlab 2014b, meaning that the MCR also needs to be updated. Furthermore, this has resulted in some graphical changes and a few small cosmetic errors in the user interface. These will hopefully be fixed in a future update.

Version 2.0.2 (April 2014)

Choice of models in the «cmd-PC1D options» tab are now correctly saved and loaded from the .prm file.
Fixed an issue where settings in the «cmd-PC1D options» tab where sometimes not updated before running a batch simulation
Removed some text files in the downloadable zip-files, added description text to the PV lighthouse page.

Version 2.0.1 (March 2014)

The program now automatically loads the parameter file «new.prm» during startup
Error messages have been simplified and are now less cryptic. The error messages are still not very informative and basically just states that an error has occurred in some part of the program. Please note that these messages (e.g. when attempting to plot output before running a simulation) do normally not cause any problems for continued use of the program.
Improved syntax used in «Output calculations.txt».

Version 2.0 (March 2014)

Several important bugfixes and changes from the first version of PC1D for Matlab (which was not hosted on PV lighthouse)
Secondary parameters used to calculate input parameters to PC1D (e.g. the SRV and series resistance of local rear contacts) have been removed.
Hard-coded calculations based on the cmd-PC1D results (e.g. the effective carrier lifetime) have been removed. Instead, these calculations are defined in the text file "Output calculations.txt".
Added a tab where the user can specify if the original PC1D calculations (cmd-PC1D 5.9) or the modified PC1D version (cmd-PC1D 6.0) should be used, as well as the choice of models to use in cmd-PC1D 6.0.

Known issues

Some convergence issues may be encountered if the series resistance of the illuminated emitter contact is set to a non-zero value when using Schenk’s BGN model. For now, a work-around solution to the problem is to assign the total series resistance to the base contact instead.
Users have also reported convergence issues after including certain diffusion profiles with high p-type doping (>1e20 cm-3) when F-D statistics is used, particularly in regions with no optical excitation. The reasons for these convergence issues are unknown, but the problem will be looked into and hopefully resolved in a future version.
Batch files do not work with cmd-PC1D 6.1 yet. Batch simulations therefore have to be performed by running the program inside a loop, or by using the PC1D for Matlab user interface.
If you discover other problems, or have suggestions for improvements, please send an email to the author at halvard.haug@ife.no.

PC1D for Matlab

PC1D for Matlab is an alternative user interface with many built-in possibilities for data visualisation and advanced analysis, including optimisation and fitting to experimental data. The program is free and can be run as a standalone executable.

It requires an installation of MCR 2014b. MCR 2014b is freely available from Mathworks. PC1Dmod 6.2 and cmd-PC1D 6.2 can be run on 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, whereas PC1D for Matlab is currently only compiled for 64-bit Windows. Mac and Linux are not supported.

How to use:

Download both zip archives
Extract the files to the same folder.
Download and install the Compiler Runtime (MCR) 2014b.

PC1D for Matlab is still somewhat buggy and sadly no longer updated.

Download file:

Welcome to Quokka 2

Disclaimer

Import PVL File

Download PC1Dmod6.1

Neither PV Lighthouse nor any other person related to the compilation or distribution of this program, make any warranty, expressed or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information disclosed or rendered by this program and its associated data files.

PC1Dmod 6.2

cmd-PC1D 6.2

Download:

Authors:

References:

PC1Dmod 6.2

How to use cmd-PC1D and the associated conversion programs

Physical models for PC1Dmod6.1

J0e and QSSPC simulations

PC1Dmod

cmd-PC1D

PC1D for Matlab

Known issues

PC1D for Matlab

Disclaimer

Version