Besides Electro- and Photoluminescence (EL/PL) a third technique based on thermal analysis has become popular for solar cell and panel inspection. While EL/PL show information related to the voltages in solar devices, thermography tells us about the current flow. The informnation of thermal analysis is partially the same as obtained in EL/PL, however there is also some complementary information. Especially information about shunts and serial resistance can be easily detected by thermal analysis.
Systems for macroscopic and microscopic applications are offered. They are based on mid-wave IR detectors, sensitive in the range from 3-5 µm wavelength with extreme high temperature resolution in the mK range.
