Measuring apparatus and method for measuring characteristic of solar cell

A method of measuring a voltage vs. current characteristic of a solar cell comprising the steps of:

• segmenting a photo-sensing surface of the solar cell into a plurality of blocks each having a predetermined area;
• measuring a first characteristic of the solar cell while alternately illuminating each of the plurality of blocks, wherein an area of the blocks of the photo-sensing surface which is not illuminated during the measurement of each alternate illumination is called a dark area;
• measuring a second characteristic of the solar cell in a dark state in which the photo-sensing surface is shielded from light;
• calculating a third characteristic of the solar cell by adding current values corresponding to voltage values of the first characteristics of the plurality of blocks;
• calculating a fourth characteristic by multiplying current values corresponding to voltage values of the second characteristics by N-1 where N is the number of the plurality of blocks;
• and
• calculating the voltage vs. current characteristic of the solar cell by subtracting current values corresponding to voltage values of the fourth characteristic from current values corresponding to voltage values of the third characteristic.

A method comprising:

• a dividing step of dividing a photo-sensing surface of a solar cell into N portions, each portion configured to output a voltage;
• a shielding step of shielding the photo-sensing surface of the solar cell from incident light;
• a first measuring step of measuring the voltage output from each portion of the photo-sensing surface when all of the portions are shielded;
• illuminating, individually, each portion of the photo-sensing surface while the other portions are shielded;
• a second measuring step of measuring the voltage output from each portion of the photo-sensing unit while that portion is illuminated and the other portions are shielded;
• a first calculating step of calculating a first characteristic of the solar cell by summing the voltages measured in said second measuring step;
• a second calculating step of calculating a second characteristic by multiplying the sum of the voltages measured in said first measuring step by N-1;
• and
• calculating a characteristic of the solar cell by subtracting the second characteristic from the first characteristic.