Design of an Automated, High-Throughput Optical Characterization Tool for Photovoltaics

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) devices are traditionally optimized through an iterative, top-down engineering approach in which many devices are built, tested, and studied to determine where performance improvements can be made. Researchers typically perform multiple measurements on each device using various manual characterization tools. This practice is ultimately time-intensive, inefficient, and expensive. This thesis documents the development of an automated, large-format characterization tool capable of performing multiple optical measurements simultaneously in order to address existing PV characterization inefficiencies. The resulting prototype demonstrates potential to serve as a high-throughput research tool that could ultimately advance the pace of future PV research.