Calibration of the WCT‐100 photoconductance instrument at low conductance

The WCT‐100 photoconductance instrument is used throughout the photovoltaic industry providing a relatively simple and inexpensive means to assess recombination parameters. This paper presents a method to determine its output voltage V _WCT over the conductance range, S = 0·002–20 mS, a range not easily attained by the conventional calibration method. The relationship between V _WCT and S is found to transition from being non‐linear to linear at S ∼ 1 mS, which equates to the conductance of a 300 µ m thick 30 Ω‐cm silicon wafer. For samples whose dark conductance is lower than the transition conductance, the non‐linear relationship between V _WCT and S must be taken into account to prevent a gross underestimation of recombination rate. The method we describe can equally well be used to investigate the calibration of other photoconductance instruments. It involves the simultaneous measurement of a device's electrical conductance and the instrument's output voltage under a range of steady‐state illumination intensities. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

N~+P photodetector characterization using the quasi-steady state photoconductance decay method

正When a material is irradiated,it becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of the electromagnetic radiation.As a result,the number of free electrons and holes changes and raises its electrical conductivity. A simple but interesting phenomenon to characterise a fabricated n~+p photodetector in order to determine its linearity(photoresponse) and photoconductance was employed.Using the transient decay when the irradiation source is switched off,the minority carrier concentration,effective lifetime and surface recombination velocity present at the surface of the detector were measured.     

N+P photodetector characterization using the quasi-steady state photoconductance decay method

When a material is irradiated, it becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of the electromagnetic radiation. As a result, the number of free electrons and holes changes and raises its electrical conductivity. A simple but interesting phenomenon to characterise a fabricated n⁺p photodetector in order to determine its linearity (photoresponse) and photoconductance was employed. Using the transient decay when the irradiation source is switched off, the minority carrier concentration, effective lifetime and surface recombination velocity present at the surface of the detector were measured.     

Impact of laterally non‐uniform carrier lifetime on photoconductance‐based lifetime measurements with self‐consistent calibration

The impact of laterally non‐uniform carrier lifetime on the determination of the lifetime from photoconductance‐based measurements, based on the self‐consistent method proposed by Trupke and Bardos, is investigated using a simple model. It is shown that the method can result in an overestimation of the mean lifetime, with the magnitude of the error mainly dependent on the distribution of the effective lifetime across the area sensed by the photoconductance coil. Although in many cases the error introduced will be relatively small (in the order of 5% or less), much larger errors can result in some cases, such as for samples that feature small areas with a significantly higher than average lifetime. The error can be eliminated through independent measurement of the sample optical properties. Experimental measurements confirm the model predictions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The implementation of temperature control to an inductive‐coil photoconductance instrument for the range of 0–230°C

A new device setup for temperature and injection‐dependent lifetime spectroscopy (TIDLS) is described. It comprises two off‐the‐shelf components: a heating and cooling stage (HCS) from INSTEC and an inductive‐coil photoconductance (PC) instrument (WCT‐100) from Sinton Consulting Inc. The HCS was fitted to the WCT‐100 in a manner that circumscribes the inductive coil (the sensor) of the RF bridge circuit and controls the temperature of the wafer effectively. This setup has the advantage of requiring minor modifications to industry standard instruments while attaining a large temperature range. As experimental verification, injection‐dependent lifetimes were measured over a temperature range, 0–230°C, in three iron‐implanted silicon wafers. The measured lifetimes are consistent with the Shockley–Read–Hall equation using the impurity concentration calculated from the implant dose and the energy level and capture cross‐sections of interstitial iron from the literature. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the determination of the emitter saturation current density from lifetime measurements of silicon devices

Contactless photoconductance measurements are commonly used to extract the emitter saturation current density (J_oe) for crystalline silicon samples containing an emitter on the surface. We review the physics behind the analysis of J_oe and compare the commonly used approximations with more generalised solutions using two‐dimensional device simulations. We quantify errors present in such approximations for different test conditions involving varying illumination conditions and surface properties in samples with the same emitter on both sides. The simulated J_oe obtained from the dark hole current from the emitter into the bulk is nearly the same as the simulated J_oe determined by photoconductance measurements of the rear diffusion. The simulated J_oe at the front emitter is equivalent to that at the rear emitter only when the sample is subject to a nearly constant and flat generation profile. For illumination conditions including visible light, the simulated J_oe at the front emitter is smaller than the simulated J_oe at the rear emitter. Both J_oe at the rear emitter and from the dark hole current in the emitter remain nearly constant over a wide range of base doping densities. The approximations used for the determination of J_oe from photoconductance measurements make J_oe dependent on the excess minority carrier density. Lifetime measurements demonstrate that, even in high‐quality silicon, J_oe should be determined from the analytical solution as a function of excess minority carrier density including Shockley‐Read‐Hall recombination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effective bulk doping concentration of diffused and undiffused silicon wafers obtained from combined photoconductance and photoluminescence measurements

The effective doping concentration of the bulk of a silicon wafer is an important material parameter for photovoltaic applications. The techniques commonly used to measure the effective doping concentration are based on conductance or resistivity measurements and include both contacted methods, such as the four‐point probe, and contactless approaches, such as eddy current measurements. Applying these techniques to diffused wafers is complicated by the fact that the total conductance is the sum of the bulk conductance and the diffused layer conductance. Without further information about the emitter properties, a clear separation of these two parameters is not possible. This paper demonstrates a contactless method for specifically measuring the effective doping concentration of the bulk without significant influence from diffused layers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fundamental boron–oxygen‐related carrier lifetime limit in mono‐ and multicrystalline silicon

Boron‐doped crystalline silicon is the most relevant material in today's solar cell production. Following the trend towards higher efficiencies, silicon substrate materials with high carrier lifetimes are becoming more and more important. In silicon with sufficiently low metal impurity concentrations, the carrier lifetime is ultimately limited by a metastable boron–oxygen‐related defect, which forms under minority‐carrier injection. We have analysed 49 different Czochralski‐grown silicon materials of numerous suppliers with various boron and oxygen concentrations. On the basis of our measured lifetime data, we have derived a universal empirical parameterisation predicting the stable carrier lifetime from the boron and oxygen content in the crystalline silicon material. For multicrystalline silicon it is shown that the predicted carrier lifetime can be regarded as a fundamental upper limit. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

RIE‐induced carrier lifetime degradation

Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) is used in the fabrication of some types of solar cells to achieve a highly directional etch. However, cells fabricated using RIE have lower than expected efficiency, possibly caused by increased carrier recombination. Characterisation of the carrier lifetime in solar cells was conducted using the quasi steady state photoconductance (QSSPC) measurement technique. Substantial effective lifetime degradation was observed for silicon samples processed by RIE. Lifetime degradation for samples where RIE etches into silicon is found to be permanent, while for samples where RIE etches only on dielectric layers of SiO₂ grown on the wafer, the lifetime degradation is found to be reversible. The reversible degradation in RIE‐processed samples is associated with radiation damage. By reducing the proportion of a wafer exposed to RIE, the degradation of the effective lifetime of RIE‐etched silicon samples can be minimised, and the performance of silicon solar cells can be improved significantly. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A lifetime enhancement protocol in cluster‐based wireless sensor networks with guaranteed delay

Wireless sensor networks nowadays find application in all the fields of the world. Rare event detection is an important application in which the wireless sensor network is used. In the case of rare event detection, event of interest or the important event occurs very rarely. Battery‐powered sensor nodes are deployed to detect the event and report to the base station. Sensing and communicating the low priority events happen in major portion of the lifetime for the sensor nodes. However, if the event occurs, then it should be detected and communicated at the earliest to the base station or to the sink node. To reduce the network traffic due to low priority data, we propose a cross layered algorithm to improve the lifetime of the sensor nodes in the case of clustered architecture. In spite of the increase in the network lifetime, the time to detect and communicate to the base station is maintained as that of the traditional clustering approach. The proposed algorithm is simulated, and results show significant improvement in the lifetime of the sensor nodes with guaranteed latency. In this paper, we also suggest methods to support the latency to sensor nodes on priority basis for continuous reporting.     

Microsecond carrier lifetime measurements in silicon via quasi‐steady‐state photoluminescence

Modulated quasi‐steady‐state photoluminescence is used in photovoltaics in order to measure the injection‐dependent effective minority carrier lifetime of silicon wafers. In spite of the very advantageous properties of this measurement technique, its wide dissemination in photovoltaics has been hampered so far because of a relatively poor sensitivity limit in terms of carrier lifetime. A systematic analysis of the sensitivity‐limiting mechanisms led to a substantial upgrade of sensitivity, tackling the range of effective lifetimes of 1 µs. This paper discusses the requirements to reach this level of sensitivity. Most prominently, the dependence of a silicon photodiode's response time with respect to the wavelength of the detected light is addressed. As an alternative, InGaAs photodiodes are implemented. The sensitivity of this method with respect to carrier lifetime is evaluated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

High efficiency screen‐printed EFG Si solar cells through rapid thermal processing‐induced bulk lifetime enhancement

This paper shows that one second (1 s) firing of Si solar cells with screen‐printed Al on the back and SiN _x anti‐reflection coating on the front can produce a high quality Al‐doped back‐surface‐field (Al‐BSF) and significantly enhance SiN _x ‐induced defect hydrogenation in the bulk Si. Open‐circuit voltage, internal quantum efficiency measurements, and cross‐sectional scanning electron microscopy pictures on float‐zone silicon cells revealed that 1 s firing in rapid thermal processing at 750°C produces just as good a BSF as 60 s firing, indicating that the quality of Al‐BSF region is not a strong function of RTP firing time at 750°C. Analysis of edge‐defined film‐fed grown (EFG) Si cells showed that short‐term firing is much more effective in improving the hydrogen passivation of bulk defects in EFG Si. Average minority‐carrier lifetime in EFG wafers improved from ∼3 to ∼33 μs by 60 s firing but reached as high as 95μs with 1 s firing, resulting in 15·6% efficient screen‐printed cells on EFG Si. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Co‐simulation‐based modeling and performance analysis of hybrid fiber–wireless links

We present a new approach for the performance analysis of hybrid fiber/wireless communication systems. This approach is based on a co‐simulation using two types of dedicated software: the first is used for RF/wireless systems whereas the second is devoted to optical communication systems. The proposed method enables simultaneous simulation of all elements of the radio‐over‐fiber link with accurate modeling. A low‐cost wireless local area network over a fiber distribution system is implemented in order to validate the results experimentally. Simulation results are in good agreement with experimental measurements in terms of EVM evolution for different link element configurations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparing lifetime and photoluminescence imaging pattern recognition methodologies for predicting solar cell results based on as‐cut wafer properties

Wafer quality is extremely important in determining yield and efficiency of solar cells. Ideally, this wafer quality should be determined for incoming wafers before solar cell fabrication based on the electronic quality of the wafers. Recent papers have discussed methodologies for doing this by using lifetime measurement and pattern recognition of photoluminescence (PL) images. This paper compares results from quasi‐steady‐state photoconductance (QSSPC) lifetime measurements with PL imaging pattern recognition of dislocations. By using a more complete analysis of the lifetime and the PL data than performed in some recent publications, a more detailed physical picture is presented here, which reconciles contradictions between previous results. In particular, the differences between PL and QSSPC lifetime measurements on as‐cut wafers are discussed. The trends in voltage prediction based on measured lifetime, doping, and PL‐determined dislocation densities are shown. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A novel heuristic simulation‐optimization method for critical infrastructure in smart transportation systems

A simulation‐based optimization is a decision‐making tool that helps in identifying an optimal solution or a design for a system. An optimal solution and design are more meaningful if they enhance a smart system with sensing, computing, and monitoring capabilities with improved efficiency. In situations where testing the physical prototype is difficult, a computer‐based simulation and its optimization processes are helpful in providing low‐cost, speedy and lesser time‐ and resource‐consuming solutions. In this work, a comparative analysis of the proposed heuristic simulation‐optimization method for improving quality‐of‐service (QoS) is performed with generalized integrated optimization (a simulation approach based on genetic algorithms with evolutionary simulated annealing strategies having simplex search). In the proposed approach, feature‐based local (group) and global (network) formation processes are integrated with Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions for finding the optimum performance. Further, the simulated annealing method is applied for finding local and global optimum values supporting minimum traffic conditions. A small‐scale network of 50 to 100 nodes shows that genetic simulation optimization with multicriteria and multidimensional features performs better as compared to other simulation‐optimization approaches. Further, a minimum of 3.4% and a maximum of 16.2% improvement is observed in faster route identification for small‐scale IoT networks with simulation‐optimization constraints integrated model as compared to the traditional method. The proposed approach improves the critical infrastructure monitoring performance as compared to the generalized simulation‐optimization process in complex transportation scenarios with heavy traffic conditions. The communicational and computational‐cost complexities are least for the proposed approach.     

FUCA: Fuzzy‐based unequal clustering algorithm to prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network comprises billions of nodes that work collaboratively, gather data, and transmit to the sink. “Energy hole” or “hotspot” problem is a phenomenon in which nodes near to the sink die prematurely, which causes the network partition. This is because of the imbalance of the consumption of energy by the nodes in wireless sensor networks. This decreases the network's lifetime. Unequal clustering is a technique to cope up with this issue. In this paper, an algorithm, “fuzzy‐based unequal clustering algorithm,” is proposed to prolong the lifetime of the network. This protocol forms unequal clusters. This is to balance the energy consumption. Cluster head selection is done through fuzzy logic approach. Input variables are the distance to base station, residual energy, and density. Competition radius and rank are the two output fuzzy variables. Mamdani method is employed for fuzzy inference. The protocol is compared with well‐known algorithms, like low‐energy adaptive clustering hierarchy, energy‐aware unequal clustering fuzzy, multi‐objective fuzzy clustering algorithm, and fuzzy‐based unequal clustering under different network scenarios. In all the scenarios, the proposed protocol performs better. It extends the lifetime of the network as compared with its counterparts.     

Genetic spider monkey‐based routing protocol to increase the lifetime of the network and energy management in WSN

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) include large distributed nodes in the sensing field. However, the sensor nodes may die due to energy deficiency as they are situated in a hostile environment. Therefore, an energy‐efficient WSN routing protocol is necessary in order to better accommodate the various environmental conditions. In this paper, we have proposed a new Energy‐Efficient Genetic Spider Monkey‐based Routing Protocol (EGSMRP) to improve the stability and lifetime of sensor nodes. The operation of EGSMRP is classified into two stages: (i) setup phase and (ii) steady‐state phase. In the setup phase, GSMO‐based cluster head selection procedure is done. In this phase, the base station utilizes the GSMO algorithm as a device to generate energy‐efficient clusters. Followed with this, the steady‐state phase solves the load balancing issue by utilizing the intracluster data broadcast and dual‐hop intercluster broadcasting algorithm. Thereby, the proposed EGSMRP protocol has shown the energy‐based opportunistic broadcasting with reduced control overhead. Simulation is performed in various conditions to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed EGSMRP protocol using different metrics such as throughput, control overhead, energy consumption, end‐to‐end delay, and network lifetime. From the simulation results, it was evident that EGSMRP has achieved a higher performance compared to other traditional approaches such as EBAR, MCTRP, IEEMARP, HMCEER, and EFTETRP.     

Maximizing the lifetime of energy‐constrained cooperative spectrum sensing sensor network

Adding the cognitive capability to wireless sensor networks allows the sensors to monitor the spectrum and identify the spectrum holes to operate in different frequencies according to the radio environment which result in better spectrum utilization. Spectrum sensing is a main component in any cognitive radio network. In this paper, we propose a new cooperative sensing scheme based on energy detection for cognitive sensor networks which is constrained by the energy limitation of the wireless sensor elements. The proposed scheme minimizes the sensing energy for individual sensor and carefully selects the suitable participant sensors in each cooperative sensing process. This results in maximizing the lifetime of energy‐constrained wireless sensor networks. The proposed scheme also takes into consideration the constraints on the detection accuracy. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme prolonged the lifetime of the cognitive network, makes efficient usage of available spectrum by secondary users, and satisfy the target detection performance.