EL Testing for Si Solar Cells using High Performance CCD. The determination of luminescence (photo emissions) in solar cells is an important characterization tool. Typical solar cells often have defects which limit the efficiency or lifetime of a cell. Many of these defects are visualized with Luminescence Imaging. By using this technique, the manufacturing process can be optimized to produce better cells. Luminescence Imaging takes advantage of the radiative inter-band recombination of excited charge carriers in solar cells. The emitted photons can be captured with a sensitive CCD camera to obtain an image of the distribution of the radiative recombination in the cell. This distribution is determined by the local excitation level, allowing the detection of electrical losses, thus mapping the diffusion length of minority carriers as the emitted light is low intensity and in the near infra-red range, the CCD camera has a high sensitivity wavelength from 900 to 1100 nm with little thermal noise. This CCD camera provides excellent resolution of 1024 x 1024 pixels with a large 1μm pixel size, multi-megahertz readout speed, and robust USB 2.0 connectivity. The EL CCD Camera is the ultimate high-performance CCD camera for electroluminescence and photoluminescence imaging for Photovoltaic (PV) Cells and Modules. This camera combines low noise electronics and optimal sensitivity in NIR.