Illuminated outdoor luminescence imaging of photovoltaic modules

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10554172-B2
Application number	US-201815916862-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2018
Priority date	Mar 9, 2017
Publication date	Feb 4, 2020
Grant date	Feb 4, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a method that includes applying a first condition to a photovoltaic (PV) device, and applying a second condition to the PV device, where the first condition results in a first luminescing of a surface of the PV device at a first intensity, the second condition results in a second luminescing of the surface at a second intensity, measuring the first intensity using a detector to create a first representation of the surface, measuring the second intensity using the detector to create a second representation of the surface, and comparing the first representation with the second representation to create a third representation of the surface that identifies a defect in the surface, if present.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
applying a first condition to a photovoltaic (PV) device;
applying a second condition to the PV device;
a first switching between the first applying and the second applying; and
a second switching between the second applying and the first applying, wherein:
the first condition is maintained for a first period of time,
after the first period of time has ended, the first switching occurs,
the second condition is maintained for a second period of time,
after the second period of time has ended, the second switching occurs,
the first switching and the second switching are repeated between 1 and 1000 occurrences,
the first condition results in a first luminescing of a surface of the PV device at a first intensity,
the second condition results in a second luminescing of the surface at a second intensity,
measuring the first intensity using a detector to create a first representation of the surface,
measuring the second intensity using the detector to create a second representation of the surface, and
comparing the first representation with the second representation to create a third representation of the surface that identifies a defect in the surface.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the applying the first condition comprises applying a first current to the PV device.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the applying the second condition comprises applying a second current to the PV device, and
the second current is different from the first current.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the applying the first condition comprises drawing a third current from the PV device.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:
the applying the second condition comprises drawing a fourth current from the PV device, and
the fourth current is different from the third current.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the first current is achieved by short-circuiting the PV device, such that the first current is equal to the short-circuit current (I sc ) of the PV device.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second current is achieved by regulating the second current to a value between 0.01 I sc and 0.99 I sc .

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the second current corresponds to varying the second current between 0.01 I sc and 0.99 I sc , and
the measuring of the second intensity is performed during at least a portion of the varying.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first luminescing or the second luminescing produces light comprising a wavelength between 800 nm and 1300 nm.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising filtering at least a portion of the light.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the applying the first condition and the applying the second condition are performed while the surface is exposed to sunlight.

Assignees

• Alliance Sustainable Energy

Inventors

• Deceglie Michael Gardner
• Silverman Timothy J

Classifications

• G01N21/66

  electrically excited, e.g. electroluminescence · CPC title

• G01N21/9501

  Semiconductor wafers (manufacturing processes per se of semiconductor devices implementing a measuring step H10P74/20) · CPC title

• H02S50/15 Primary

  using optical means, e.g. using electroluminescence · CPC title

• Y02E10/50

  Photovoltaic [PV] energy · CPC title