---
title: 2018-05-14-gsoc-week-1.md
date: 2018-05-14
tags:
- gsoc
- devsim
- solar cell
- simulation
---

GSOC 2018 - Week 1

Introducing .. me:

Hi, my name is Noe Nieto, I live in Mexicali and I'm about to finish my master's degree on Instituto de Ingeniería UABC Mexicali. My Thesis is about simulation of solar cells, so I felt like doing something related on my first GSOC, so I contacted Juan Sanchez from [DevSim](https://www.devsim.org/) and asked him whether he was interested to mentor me for the GSOC. After a couple of emails we came to the idea of enabling DevSim to simulate solar cells. The [project URL on the GSOC site.](https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/projects/#6392690430705664)

Right now [DevSim already has some interesting features](https://github.com/devsim/devsim#software-features), but it does not have a way to simulate the response of semiconductors with incident light, required to simulate a simple solar cell.

To make that happen, it is necessary to simulate the propagation of light into the structure
and the resulting electrical current. 

What has been done so far?

- ~~I have to~~ I've already compiled DevSim on my Fedora laptop (27 and 28 are working just OK). I also have contributed a couple of patches to the [devsim repo](https://github.com/devsim/devsim).
- I've already read the documentation of Devsim and SymDiff; DevSim has some basic support to create meshes, and there's already a diode example, so I'm going to proceed with that and create a p-n junction with a 1um depth.
- Once I have accomplished the p-n junction I'll have to work with Juan to stablish how are going to implement light propagation and generation; That's the core of the project, but it is easier said than done;
- This is all I have on my head now.
- I'm posting my questions directly to the [DevSim forum](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!categories/devsim/all-questions).

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

-- Noe