Scientific PV softwares

Scinetific solar test Lab

This section provides various links to R&D softwares, tools or simulators, dedicated to a specific scientific aspect of photovoltaic.

Process and Device Simulation Tools to Accelerate Innovation, Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) refers to the use of computer simulations to develop and optimize semiconductor processing technologies and devices. Synopsys TCAD offers a comprehensive suite of products that includes industry leading process and device simulation tools, as well as a powerful GUI-driven simulation environment for managing simulation tasks and analyzing simulation results.


Setfos is a powerful and CPU-efficient simulation software tailored to the development of novel optoelectronic thin-film-based technologies.
Setfos is designed to study and optimize organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)

Open Photovoltaics Analysis Platform (OPVAP) is a group of programs using in solar cell research, including single crystal silicon such as polycrystalline silicon and amorphous silicon, polycrystalline thin film CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) or CdTe, multijunction III-V devices, dye–sensitized or titania solar cell, and conjugated polymer or their complex with nanomaterial-enhanced, even the optical confinement geometry photovoltaic device (OCGPV).

• Analyze experiment data: Current–voltage characteristic curve (IV data), External Quantum efficiency (EQE) spectrum, and their combination, and so on.
• Calculate optimal architecture based on

Purdue University's PVHub provides online access to photovoltaic simulation tools :

Among the tools at PVHub are the following :

SCAPS-1D is a simulation programme for thin film solar cells developed at ELIS, University of Gent.

SCAPS (a Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator) is a one dimensional solar cell simulation programme developed at the Department of Electronics and Information Systems (ELIS) of the University of Gent, Belgium.

Gpvdm (new name of OPVDM) is a free general-purpose tool for the simulation of opto-electronic devices. It was originally written to simulate organic solar cells, but it has now been been extended to simulate other classes of device, including OLEDs, OFETs and many other types of 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation solar cells. Currently the model can simulate:

  • Organic solar cells (OPV devices)
  • Organic LEDs (OLEDs)
  • Organic Field Effect Transistors (OFETs)
  • Crystalline silicon solar cells
  • a-Si solar cells
  • CIGS solar cells

PhotoElectroChemical SIMulation software PECSIM is a simulation software for the systematic model-based analysis and optimization of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).
The user gains an insight into the complex interaction of the solar cell components of a DSSC that is needed to analyze the energy conversion losses and to develop solar cell optimization strategies.