Research on integrated system for solar simulator performance calibration according to IEC 60904-9

Solar simulators are widely used for indoor measurement of current-voltage (I-V) characteristics as well as irradiance exposure tests of terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) devices. The influence of solar simulator's performance, commonly including spectral mismatch and irradiance uniformity/temporal stability, can never be ignored, especially in the case of I-V characteristics measurement. Herein, we present an integrated system for solar simulator's performance calibration according to IEC 60904-9, which proposed requirements and defined classifications for solar simulators, with items of spectral mismatch compared with AM 1.5 reference solar spectral irradiance (AM 1.5 G), non-uniformity and temporal instability of irradiance. This integrated system is composed of two major departments, i) a calibrated optic fiber spectrometer for spectral mismatch characteristic, ii) data acquisition equipments for detecting irradiance uniformity/temporal stability and calibrating Isc/Voc measurements. It is applicable to various kinds of solar simulators and portable to satisfy the requirements of on-site calibration for solar simulator users.