Polycrystalline CdTe thin films for photovoltaic applications

The CdTe/CdS thin film solar cells can be most conveniently fabricated in the form of thin films. Solar cells based on CdTe have been studied for several years now and the technology seems to be ripe for starting significant industrial production. Recently CdTe thin film solar cells have achieved an energy conversion efficiency record of 16.5% on a laboratory scale.In this paper we review the process needed to prepare high efficiency CdTe/CdS solar cells from the point of view of thin film deposition techniques.Furthermore we show that thin film CdTe technology is sufficiently mature to be easily transferred to form the basis of a large-scale module production.