Takeshi Hibino

16.0% Efficient Thin-Film CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

High efficiency cadmium sulfide (CdS)/cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells have been developed using ultrathin CdS films having a thickness of 50 nm. CdS films deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO)/#1737 glass substrates by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition technique, and CdTe films subsequently deposited by the close-spaced sublimation technique were used for the fabrication of CdS/CdTe solar cells. A photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 16.0% under Air Mass (AM) 1.5 conditions has been measured by the Japan Quality Assurance Organization.

Characterization of CdS Thin-Film in High Efficient CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) thin films are the most commonly used window materials for high efficient cadmium telluride (CdTe) and chalcopyrite polycrystalline thin-film photovoltaic devices. High efficient CdS/CdTe solar cells with thin CdS films have been developed using ultrathin CdS films with a thickness of less than 0.1 µm. CdS films were deposited on transparent conductive oxide (TCO)/glass substrates by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique. CdTe films were subsequently deposited by the close-spaced sublimation (CSS) technique. The screen printing and sintering method fabricated carbon and silver electrodes. Cell performance depends primarily on the electrical and optical properties of CdS films. Therefore we started to develop higher-quality CdS films and found clear differences between high- and low-quality CdS films from the analyses of scanning electron microscope (SEM), atomic force microscope (AFM), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), thermal desorption spectrometry (TDS) and Fourier transforms-infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) measurements. As a result of controlling the quality of CdS films, a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 10.5% has been achieved for size of 1376 cm2 of the solar cells under the Air Mass (AM) 1.5 conditions of the Japan Quality Assurance Organization.