Investigation of Creep-Fatigue Lifetime in Solar Photovoltaic Module Interconnections
Abstract
The growing demand for utilization of solar photovoltaic (PV) module puts increased pressure on manufacturers to improve the reliability of PV modules for meeting their lifetime warranty. The PV module interconnection which is one of the key components of the module is reported to account for about 40% of the failure of the module. In this study, Finite Element Analysis using ABAQUS software was implemented to investigate the creep-fatigue behavior of the solder joints for PV module interconnection with different dimensions. The exponent factor of Coffin–Manson–Arrhenius approach for estimating the Creep-Fatigue life of the PV module interconnections was determined to be -1.8 and was used to predict the solder joint’s creep-fatigue life under thermal cycling operating conditions. Our results suggest that optimal dimensions for higher PV interconnection reliability are 20µm solder thickness, 40µm-50µm silver-pad thickness, 150 µm-200 µm copper thickness and 1 mm ribbon width. This work could guide PV module manufacturers for potential design changes to improve the long-term reliability of the system.