Patent ID: 8423307

Claim:
An analysis and evaluation apparatus for estimating and evaluating characteristics of large-area series-connected solar battery cells from an actually measured current-voltage characteristic of a small-area single solar battery cell, the large-area series-connected cells having a plurality of unit solar battery cells connected in series and having a plurality of transparent electrodes, a plurality of rear electrodes, a plurality of current-collection holes and a plurality of series-connection holes formed therein, the analysis and evaluation apparatus comprising: a data storage unit configured to store shape parameters and material physical properties of current-collection holes, series-connection holes, a transparent electrode, a rear electrode of the large-area series-connected cells; an analysis model construction unit configured to read the shape parameters and material physical properties stored in the data storage unit and automatically construct and store a finite element method (FEM) model in consideration of electric resistance of the large-area series-connected cells; an analysis arithmetic operation unit configured to obtain a current at a voltage of initial calculation based on the actually measured current-voltage characteristic of the small-area single cell, set the current as a current load, calculate potential distributions of the transparent electrode and rear electrode of the large-area series-connected cells, correct the current load based on a difference between the potential distributions of the transparent electrode and the rear electrode, and the actually measured current-voltage characteristic of the small-area single cell, re-calculate the potential distributions based on the corrected current load, and repeat the re-calculation of the potential distributions until the potential distributions converge; and an evaluation unit configured to evaluate a calculation result converged by the analysis arithmetic operation unit as to whether the calculation result is a pattern exhibiting a desired current-voltage characteristic of the large-area series-connected cells.