Estimation of the degradation rate of multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic module under thermal cycling stress

Abstract The overall power of an outdoor-exposed photovoltaic (PV) module decreases as a result of thermal cycling (TC) stress, due to the formation of cracks between the solder and metal. In this study, the thermal fatigue life of solder (62Sn36Pb2Ag) interconnection between copper and silver metallization in PV module was studied. This paper describes in detail the degradation rate ( R D ) prediction model of solder interconnection for crystalline PV module. The R D prediction model is developed which based on published constitutive equations for solder and TC test results on actual PV module. The finite element method was employed to study the creep strain energy density of solder interconnections in TC conditions. Three types of accelerated tests were conducted to determine the prediction model parameters. R D in benchmark condition is predicted and compared with those of TC conditions.

[1]  Michael Pecht,et al.  Reliability prediction modeling of semiconductor light emitting device , 2003 .

[2]  A. Dasgupta,et al.  Durability of Pb‐free solder between copper interconnect and silicon in photovoltaic cells , 2010 .

[3]  L. Anand.  Constitutive Equations for the Rate-Dependent Deformation of Metals at Elevated Temperatures , 1982 .

[4]  R. Subrahmanyan,et al.  A damage integral approach to thermal fatigue of solder joints , 1989, Proceedings., 39th Electronic Components Conference.

[5]  E. Woirgard,et al.  Reliability of Lead-Free BGA Assembly: Correlation Between Accelerated Ageing Tests and FE Simulations , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Device and Materials Reliability.

[6]  Y. Hishikawa,et al.  Degradation factor analysis of crystalline-Si PV modules through long-term field exposure test , 2003, 3rd World Conference onPhotovoltaic Energy Conversion, 2003. Proceedings of.

[7]  B. Z. Hong,et al.  Modeling thermally induced viscoplastic deformation and low cycle fatigue of CBGA solder joints in a surface mount package , 1996 .

[8]  T. J. McMahon,et al.  History of accelerated and qualification testing of terrestrial photovoltaic modules: A literature review , 2009 .

[9]  A. Syed.  Accumulated creep strain and energy density based thermal fatigue life prediction models for SnAgCu solder joints , 2004, 2004 Proceedings. 54th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37546).

[10]  S. Chuang,et al.  Kinetic model for degradation of light-emitting diodes , 1997 .

[11]  Chris Bailey,et al.  Modelling the fatigue life of solder joints for surface mount resistors , 2000, International Symposium on Electronic Materials and Packaging (EMAP2000) (Cat. No.00EX458).

[12]  U. Eitner,et al.  Measuring thermomechanical displacements of solar cells in laminates using digital image correlation , 2009, 2009 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC).

[13]  R. Darveaux.  Effect of simulation methodology on solder joint crack growth correlation , 2000, 2000 Proceedings. 50th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (Cat. No.00CH37070).

[14]  M. Vázquez,et al.  Photovoltaic module reliability model based on field degradation studies , 2008 .

[15]  J. Miller,et al.  Long Term Reliability of Photovoltaic Modules , 2006, 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conference.