Cost-Effective LBIC System for Solar Cell
Characterization
Jeric C. Lim, Paul Anthony C. Lorenzo, and Erees Queen B. Macabebe
Department of Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering, School of Science and Engineering
Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108 Philippines
jericclim@gmail.com, paul.lorenzo@obf.ateneo.edu, emacabebe@ateneo.edu
Abstract— Defects in solar cells such as localized shunts
greatly reduce the efficiency of the device by diverting current
away from the output. Laser beam induced current (LBIC)
technique is a non-destructive characterization tool to identify
the spatial distribution of defects by measuring the generated
current of the cells. This technique determines the defects by
scanning a laser beam onto the cell while measuring the
generated current as a function of position. This contribution
presents the development of a cost-effective LBIC system using
three wavelengths: 650 nm, 532 nm, and 450nm. LBIC resolution
is optimized by varying the spot size of the light source and the
step size of the machine. LBIC maps generated from different
laser wavelengths show variations in image quality and details.
Keywords— light beam induced current; solar cell
characterization; laser
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy has always been part of everybody’s need. Along
with industrialization, energy demand has also increased.
During the last decade, there has been a 2.1% average increase
in the global energy consumption[1]. Renewable energy has
been the trend in keeping up with these demands. Solar PV in
particular has reached 177GW. Asia added 60% of the total
global installations in 2014[2]. The Philippines, being in the
sunbelt region, receives enough solar radiation for solar to
become viable, sustainable, convenient and practical. The
country receives 4.0 – 6.0 kWh/m2/day depending on the day
of the year [3].
Conversion efficiency is one of the most important
parameters in the manufacturing of solar cells. Defects,
however, are inevitable. These defects include local optical
blockage, leakage path, and other external factors [4]. Local
optical blockages are defects that reduce the cell efficiency
due to inefficient collection of photocarriers and faulty
internal electrical contacts. Leakage paths include localized
shunts which divert current away from the intended load.
External factors such as hotspots caused by high temperature
are also defects that reduce the overall cell efficiency.
Defects limit the performance of the cell. If defects are
present, the effective surface area of the whole panel is
reduced as the current it can produce is directly proportional to
it, hence, reducing the maximum current that can be harnessed
for the intended load. Due to this direct causality, defect
identification becomes vital in characterizing solar cells.
One of the methods used to determine defects is
electroluminescence imaging [5]. Electroluminescence (EL) is
a phenomenon wherein a material emits light due to an electric
978-1-4799-8641-5/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
current or a strong electric field. This technique uses a power
source connected to the cell under test to force it to emit light.
A camera is used to capture the image of the emission of light
during this process. EL imaging can show poor contacts
through the information about the radiative recombination in
the cells.
Another defect identification technique similar to EL
imaging is photoluminescence (PL) imaging [6]. PL is the
emission of light after the absorption of photons. Using a light
source, PL excites electrons from the ground state to the
conductive state. After a very short time, these excited
electrons go back to ground state by releasing its energy in the
form of photons or light.
A different identification technique called Infrared (IR)
Thermography uses the IR radiation of the cells to determine
defects. IR radiation varies with the material temperature[7].
Defective parts can be expressed by the variation of IR
radiation of the cells.
One of the most accurate tools to determine defects is
Light Beam Induced Current or LBIC. It is an optical imaging
technique that focuses an isolated light source onto the cell to
produce photo-generated current which is measured as a
function of its position[8]. LBIC maps can accurately show
the spatial distribution of the defects in a cell and can also be
used to study the degradation of cells [9].
Ideally, a combination of these defect identification
techniques must be used to verify the result of the different
techniques. In this study, an LBIC system was developed
using a refurbished stage driven by stepper motors and
inexpensive parts for the light source. The study also looks
into the quality of the LBIC maps when the step size of the
motors and the spot size of the light source were varied.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
A. Solar Photovoltaics(PV)
Photovoltaics (PV) is the method of converting sunlight
into electricity through the photovoltaic effect. Solar PV uses
photovoltaic cells to perform the photovoltaic effect. The
conversion undergoes two fundamental processes; generation
of charge carriers and the collection of charge carriers.
The generation of charge carriers happens when photons of
light having enough energy hit the solar cell. In this process,
photons having energy greater or equal to the bandgap of the
material are absorbed. The absorption of photons gives energy
to excite electrons from the valence band to the conduction
band. This leads to the creation of electron-hole pair; an
electron in conduction band and a hole in the valence band.
Eventually, the electrons in the conduction band will go back
to the holes in the valence band through recombination. The
structure of PV devices denies the immediate recombination
of the electron-hole pair. Since a PV device is essentially a PN
junction, an electromotive force (emf) exists at the junction.
When a cell is exposed to light, the junction emf increases
which then drives the electrons away from recombining with
the holes.
B. Laser
LBIC systems are known to be a high resolution imaging
technique due to its use of lasers for its light source as these
have coherent and collimated light. The coherence of a light
source is based on its spectral width and lasers themselves are
known to have a narrow spectral width.
A laser is a device that emits light through light
amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Lasers use a
photon of light to pump electrons from a lower energy level to
a higher energy level. This pumping action happens when
photons have energy equal or greater than the bandgap of the
lasing medium. The method of pumping electrons is called
stimulated absorption. After a certain time, these energized
electrons will go back to the lower energy by releasing its
energy in a form of a photon. This process is called
spontaneous emission. Before spontaneous emission happens,
another photon is used to stimulate the release of energy of the
electron in the higher energy level which results to having two
photons. This process, called stimulated emission, is repeated
by placing two parallel mirrors at the lasing medium to reflect
photons back and forth. This allows light to pass through as a
coherent and collimated output.
For LBIC applications, additional collimation may be done
in order to decrease the spot size of lasers to produce higher
resolution LBIC systems. Lasers are more appropriate light
source for LBIC applications since it has a coherent output.
LBIC applications require a specific wavelength to the level
that needs to be scanned since different wavelengths
penetrates the cells in different levels, thus a fixed wavelength,
provided by lasers, is necessary.
III. METHODOLOGY
The LBIC system was developed using refurbished parts
from a mechanical PCB milling and drilling machine. The
mechanical components of the machine are responsible for the
movement of the cell under test. The step sizes used for the
experiment were 300 um, 96 um, 48 um, and 24 um. The
initial light source used was 650 nm and spot size of 680 um.
Improvements were done using light sources having
wavelengths of 650 nm, 532 nm, and 450 nm and spot size of
approximately 100 um for the succeeding scans. The step sizes
were chosen such that it may be used to investigate the fingers
of crystalline cells [10].
An interconnect board was developed such that the motor
controllers may be interfaced with LabView. The whole
system is controlled by a LabView Virtual Instrument (VI).
The VI holds the algorithm for synchronizing the motion of
the machine and the gathering of the measured current. The
2
instrument scans the cell under test by following a
bidirectional raster pattern called serpentine scanning pattern
[11]. The photo-generated currents were measured through a
board that can be interfaced with LabView. Data are then
taken by the VI and stored in a matrix. A separate VI is used
to read the collected data in a .csv file and maps it in either
three or two dimensions.
Finally, a monocrystalline silicon solar cell was scanned
using the different light sources and the step size during each
scan was also varied.
IV. RESULTS
Fig. 1 shows the scanned area of the solar cell and the
LBIC map using a 650 nm light source having 680 um spot
size and 300 um step size. The vertical lines show the fingers
of the cell, while the horizontal line shows the bus bar of the
cell. The diagonal lines found at the border of the bus bar are
due to the interpolation of the data during the graph. It can be
seen that current readings located between the fingers have
slight variations. This is caused by the non-homogeneity of the
material [12] or of the antireflection coating.
1.88 mA
1.44 mA
Fig. 1 Top View of the solar cell and sample LBIC map using a 650 nm light
source with 680 nm spot size and 300 um step size. The color scale is in milli-
ampere.
It is shown that the current readings at the fingers show
only slight difference as compared to the conductive part of
the cell instead of having similar to the bus bar reading.
Supposedly, the laser beam will only hit the fingers to produce
a very minimal current. But since the beam is not small
enough, it also hits part of the cell when scanning which
results to increase of current readings at the fingers. The long
diagonal line at the right side of the LBIC map shows a
scratch on the coating of the cell which can be verified
through visual inspection.
The results were optimized by using a smaller spot size
and reducing step sizes. Fig. 2 shows the scans using 96 um,
48 um, and 24 um step sizes. The latter scans show more
defined features of the cell. In Fig. 2a, the diagonal lines
outlining the bus bar are no longer noticeable. However, the
image is still pixelated. This was improved by reducing the
step size which increases the resolution of the image.
 1.37 1.37 1.37

0.57 0.57 0.57

(a) (b) (c)
Fig. 2 LBIC maps using a 650 nm light source and scanned with step size of (a) 96 um, (b) 48 um, and (c) 24 um with color scale in mA.

1.34 1.34 1.34

0.60 0.60 0.60

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 3 LBIC maps using a 532 nm light source and scanned with step size of (a) 96 um, (b) 48 um, and (c) 24 um with color scale in mA.

1.88 1.88 1.88

0.53 0.53 0.53

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 4 LBIC maps using a 450 nm light source and scanned with step size of (a) 96 um, (b) 48 um, and (c) 24 um with color scale in mA.

The scanning times are presented in Table 1. Decreasing features of the cell. However, it can be seen that there are
the step size increases the scanning time at a trend that follows interference patterns called Moire patterns, which are
a power series. produced when two similar patterns are closedly spaced [13].

TABLE 1
ESTIMATED SCANNING TIME V. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Step Size (um) Time(min) This contribution presents LBIC system as an effective
300 <5
characterization tool for solar cells. Using a finer light source
allows higher resolution scans with more defined features. In
96 ~ 10 future investigations, a lock-in amplifier and a modulated
48 ~ 20 power supply may be used in order to synchronize data
gathering with the application of light. This will enable to
24 >30
have a more efficient system.

Fig. 3 and 4 shows LBIC maps using 532 nm and 450 nm

wavelength lasers. Results are similar to Fig. 2 in terms of
resolution. The scans of the three wavelengths show similar

3

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank the Department of Science
and Technology - Engineering Research and Development for
Technology (DOST - ERDT) and the Ateneo de Manila
University for supporting of this study.
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