Question

Is there any difference in any photovoltaic property by the size of solar exposure area?

Answer 1

Explanation:

The difference appears in the specialized design and operation of the concrete practical devices.

The actual devices called “photodiodes” are usually intended to work as sensors or receivers, i.e. to convert light into signal (without regard to whether they make any of the light’s energycontent available to the circuit they’re in). They are therefore optimized for sensitivity and/or speed: often small, often having a so-called p–i–n junction or other response-time-enhancing tweaks, often used with negative bias. Furthermore, they may use particular materials in order to be particularly or only sensitive to certain wavelengths.

The devices called “solar cells” or “photovoltaic devices” are meant as power sources, i.e. to convert light into power (without any regard to speed). They are therefore designed for maximum power yield: with a large area, avoiding unnecessary exclusion of any wavelength where sunlight carries a meaningful amount of energy, and used with zero bias.

Originally Answered: What is the difference between a photodiode and a solar cell?

In terms of working principles, there is none.

The difference appears in the specialized design and operation of the concrete practical devices.

The actual devices called “photodiodes” are usually intended to work as sensors or receivers, i.e. to convert light into signal (without regard to whether they make any of the light’s energycontent available to the circuit they’re in). They are therefore optimized for sensitivity and/or speed: often small, often having a so-called p–i–n junction or other response-time-enhancing tweaks, often used with negative bias. Furthermore, they may use particular materials in order to be particularly or only sensitive to certain wavelengths.

The devices called “solar cells” or “photovoltaic devices” are meant as power sources, i.e. to convert light into power (without any regard to speed). They are therefore designed for maximum power yield: with a large area, avoiding unnecessary exclusion of any wavelength where sunlight carries a meaningful amount of energy, and used with zero bias.

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OTHER ANSWERS

Anonymous

Answered Jan 23 2017

The difference between the two are:
1) Size(PV are bigger and more sizeable than photodiodes)
2) Power handling capacity(The PV power capacity is more sizeable than photodiodes)
3) Application(Photodiodes are used as sensors, PV cells are used as transducers which convert light to electricity)
4) Physical Design or manufacturing process
5) The photodiodes can be used in reverse biased direction as well, this produces just the reverse saturation current due to minority carriers but this greatly improves the response time which is very important in many applications. Speed is of no concern in PV cells. Also, PV cells are never used in reverse bias.
4) Time Response

solar cell is one that is used to produce electricity from sunlight. It is a specific type of photovoltaic cell.

A photovoltaic cell (PV cell) is a pane of material that produces current flow when exposed to light.

By far, the most common use for a PV cell is as a solar cell. But scientists and engineers can use PV cells for measurments of light intensity, which can be useful for a number of applications.