Optimization of LED-Based Solar Simulators for Cadmium Telluride and Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Solar simulators are instruments used for controllable measurements of the properties of solar cells in indoor environments. The purpose of this paper is to examine the peculiarities of the photoresponses of CdTe/CdSeTe and microcrystalline Si solar cells and to reveal the pathways to reduction of spectrum mismatch effects when using light-emitting diode (LED)-based or hybrid LED and halogen lamp-based solar simulators of an A+-class spectrum with a small number of sources. While only four different LED types are needed to achieve an A+-class spectrum under updated IEC 60904-9:2020 standard requirements, as demonstrated by our results, additional ultraviolet LEDs are necessary to reduce the spectrum mismatch. For hybrid solar simulator configurations, the combination of cool white LED arrays and halogen emitters can serve as a main light source. Optimized for both solar cell types, hybrid simulators have a lower spectral deviation and better spectrum coverage compared to LED-only simulators with the same number of distinct source types. In addition, our results predict lower spectral mismatch errors for optimized simulators when compared with conventional Xe lamp-based simulators.