ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews simulation models for thin-film solar cells, and especially the specific challenges encountered in modeling of thin-film cells based on emerging technologies. Thin-film technology is characterized by several advantages over conventional technology. The "classical" thin-film solar cell technologies include the second generation cells like amorphous and microcrystalline silicon, the chalcogenide alloy copper indium gallium diselenide, and cadmium telluride, which together count up for almost all of the current thin-film solar cell market. It describes critical details and modeling issues for the different third-generation thin-film concepts. The currently most important silicon thin-film technologies are based on amorphous and microcrystalline form. A dye-sensitized solar cell is an electrochemical system where the absorption and charge transport components are spatially separated. Modeling of electronic transport in thin-film solar cells is mostly based on the drift-diffusion model, which has been the work-horse of physics-based electronic device simulation since decades.
