The intensity of the infrared radiation emitted by objects is mainly a function of their temperature. In infrared thermography, this feature is used for multiple purposes: as a health indicator in medical applications, as a sign of malfunction in mechanical and electrical maintenance or as an indicator of heat loss in buildings. This paper presents a review of infrared thermography especially focused on two applications: temperature measurement and non-destructive testing, two of the main fields where infrared thermography-based sensors are used. A general introduction to infrared thermography and the common procedures for temperature measurement and non-destructive testing are presented. Furthermore, developments in these fields and recent advances are reviewed.

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Infrared thermography for temperature measurement and non-destructive testing.

System, devices and methods are presented that integrate stretchable or flexible circuitry, including arrays of active devices for enhanced sensing, diagnostic, and therapeutic capabilities. The invention enables conformal sensing contact with tissues of interest, such as the inner wall of a lumen, a the brain, or the surface of the heart. Such direct, conformal contact increases accuracy of measurement and delivery of therapy. Further, the invention enables the incorporation of both sensing and therapeutic devices on the same substrate allowing for faster treatment of diseased tissue and fewer devices to perform the same procedure.

Systems,methods, and devices having stretchable integrated circuitry for sensing and delivering therapy

A wafer-based monocrystalline silicon photovoltaics road map: Utilizing known technology improvement opportunities for further reductions in manufacturing costs

Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells with mixed cations and mixed halides have achieved impressive power conversion efficiency of up to 22.1%. Phase segregation due to the mixed compositions has attracted wide concerns, and their nature and origin are still unclear. Some very useful analytical techniques are controversial in microstructural and chemical analyses due to electron beam-induced damage to the “soft” hybrid perovskite materials. In this study photoluminescence, cathodoluminescence, and transmission electron microscopy are used to study charge carrier recombination and retrieve crystallographic and compositional information for all-inorganic CsPbIBr2 films on the nanoscale. It is found that under light and electron beam illumination, “iodide-rich” CsPbI(1+x)Br(2−x) phases form at grain boundaries as well as segregate as clusters inside the film. Phase segregation generates a high density of mobile ions moving along grain boundaries as ion migration “highways.” Finally, these mobile ions can pile up at the perovskite/TiO2 interface resulting in formation of larger injection barriers, hampering electron extraction and leading to strong current density–voltage hysteresis in the polycrystalline perovskite solar cells. This explains why the planar CsPbIBr2 solar cells exhibit significant hysteresis in efficiency measurements, showing an efficiency of up to 8.02% in the reverse scan and a reduced efficiency of 4.02% in the forward scan, and giving a stabilized efficiency of 6.07%.

Phase segregation enhanced ion movement in efficient inorganic CsPbIBr2 solar cells

Nine different types of shunt have been found in state-of-the-art mono- and multicrystalline solar cells by lock-in thermography and identified by SEM investigation (including EBIC), TEM and EDX. These shunts differ by the type of their I–V characteristics (linear or nonlinear) and by their physical origin. Six shunt types are process-induced, and three are caused by grown-in defects of the material. The most important process-induced shunts are residues of the emitter at the edge of the cells, cracks, recombination sites at the cell edge, Schottky-type shunts below grid lines, scratches, and aluminum particles at the surface. The material-induced shunts are strong recombination sites at grown-in defects (e.g., metal-decorated small-angle grain boundaries), grown-in macroscopic Si3N4 inclusions, and inversion layers caused by microscopic SiC precipitates on grain boundaries crossing the wafer. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Shunt Types in Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Infrared lock-in thermography allows to image shunts very sensitively in all kinds of solar cells and also to measure dark currents flowing in certain regions of the cell quantitatively. After a summary of the physical basis of lock-in thermography and its practical realization, four types of quantitative measurements are described: local I–V characteristics measured thermally up to a constant factor (LIVT); the quantitative measurement of the current through a local shunt; the evaluation of the influence of shunts on the efficiency of a cell as a function of the illumination intensity; and the mapping of the ideality factor n and the saturation current density J0 over the whole cell. The investigation of a typical multicrystalline solar cell shows that the shunts are predominantly responsible for deterioration of the low-light-level performance of the cell, and that variations of the injection current density related to crystal defects are predominantly determined by variation of J0 rather than of n. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Quantitative evaluation of shunts in solar cells by lock-in thermography

http://www-old.mpi-halle.mpg.de/mpi/publi/pdf/7324_06.pdf

Transition metals in photovoltaic-grade ingot-cast multicrystalline silicon: Assessing the role of impurities in silicon nitride crucible lining material

By applying lock-in thermography imaging, light-beam-induced current imaging, electron-beam-induced current imaging at different stages of sample preparation, and infrared light microscopy in transmission mode, the physical nature of the dominant material-induced shunts in multicrystalline solar cells made from p-type silicon material has been investigated. It turns out that these shunts are due to silicon carbide (SiC) filaments, which grow preferentially in grain boundaries and cross the whole cell. These filaments are highly n-type doped, like the emitter layer on the surface of the cells. They are electrically connected both with the emitter and with the back contact, thereby producing internal shunts in the solar cell.

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Material-induced shunts in multicrystalline silicon solar cells

By employing a combination of analytical tools including lock-in thermography and synchrotron-based x-ray fluorescence microscopy, transition metals have been identified at shunting locations in two types of low-cost multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cell materials: cast multicrystalline and ribbon growth on substrate (RGS) At a shunting location in the cast mc-Si cell, silver and titanium, both contact strip materials, have been identified at the shunting location, suggesting a process-induced error related to contact metallization At a shunting location in the RGS cell, a material-specific shunting mechanism is described, involving channels of inverse conductivity type, where copper and iron are found The possible roles of these metals in this shunting mechanism are discussed These results illustrate the wide range of physical mechanisms involved with shunting in solar cells

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J.P. Rakotoniaina

Papers

Shunt Types in Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Quantitative evaluation of shunts in solar cells by lock-in thermography

Transition metals in photovoltaic-grade ingot-cast multicrystalline silicon: Assessing the role of impurities in silicon nitride crucible lining material

Material-induced shunts in multicrystalline silicon solar cells

Observation of transition metals at shunt locations in multicrystalline silicon solar cells