Spring 2012, Course Information
PHYS 4400, Principles and Varieties of Solar Energy
PHYS 6980, Fundamentals of Solar Cells

  Instructors: Randy Ellingson and Mike Heben

Introduction, Syllabus, and General Information (updated March 20, 2012)

Class Schedule:

Tuesday, Thursday, 12:30 - 1:45 pm in R1 2000N

Final Exam:

Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 12:30 - 2:30 pm in R1 2000N

Projects (teams and topics):  Project Information (click here).  Meet together with your team members regularly to prepare a high quality presentation addressing the business and technology case for starting a company in your assigned solar cell technology.  Presentations will last 25 minutes and be followed by 10 min of questions.  Individual grades will be assigned with 50% weight based on the team presentation and 50% weight based on the individual's portion of the presentation.   Organize and divide the presentation so that each person has a chance to present.   Address questions such as.... What are the technological and business strengths and weaknesses of your proposition?  Do you have research, development, or engineering goals or challenges?  How might these be overcome?  What part of the country should your company locate?   What market are you attacking, and why?   Include an analysis of the LCOE for your PV technology.

Lectures:

• Week of Jan. 10

• Week of Jan. 17:

  • PV History

  • PV Economics

  • Goal of 1$ Per Watt

• Weeks of Jan. 24-31 (no class Jan. 26):

  • Detailed Balance, Concentrated PV

  • Fundamental Solar Cell Properties

  • The p-n Homojunction (updated Feb. 9)

• Weeks of Feb. 7-14:

• More Junctions

• Heterojunctions (introduction)

• Slides on Effective Mass, and Generation/Recombination

• Bonds and Bands

• Note:  Take-home mid-term starts Feb. 28

• Week of February 21

  • Crystalline and Polycrystalline Silicon PV Technology

• Week of February 28

  • Thin film Si

• Week of March 6 (no class, Spring Break)

  • Note:  Mid-term take-home exam due March 13

• Week of March 13

  • Brief Introduction to CdTe/CdS Solar Cells

  • CdS/CdTe Solar Cells (March 15, guest lecture on CdTe/CdS by UT Distinguished Professor,Emeritus - A. Compaan)

• Week of March 20

  • Amorphous and thin film Si:H PV (March 20 guest lecture by Dr. Aarohi Vijh of Xunlight Corporation)

  • CuInGaSe₂/CdS Solar Cells

• Week of March 27

  • Glass in modern photovoltaics (March 29 guest lecture by Dr. David Strickler of Pilkington North America)

• Week of April 3

  • Characterization of solar cell materials and devices

• Week of April 10

  • Materials for nanostructured solar cells

  • Carbon nanotubes for photovoltaics

• Week of April 17

  • Two-Part lecture on (1) Dye-Sensitized Photoconversion, and (2) Upconversion Photochemistry, Dr. Felix Castellano, Professor of Chemistry, BGSU

  • Carbon nanotubes for photovoltaics (continued)

• Week of April 24 (last week of classes)

  • Project presentations

Quizzes (dates may change):

• Quiz #1, Jan. 24, 2012

• Quiz #2, Feb. 7, 2012

• Quiz #3, Feb. 21, 2012

• Quiz #4, March 1, 2012

• Quiz #5, March 22, 2012

• Quiz #6, April 12, 2012

• Quiz #7, April 26, 2012

Midterm Exam:

• Midterm Exam (posted March 12)

• EQE data