16.0% Efficient Thin-Film CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

Abstract

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.

Impacts of Temperature on the Performance of Cdte Based Thin-Film Solar Cell

“…However, as mentioned earlier, ADEPT 2.1 has been used in this work to simulate the numerical data correspond to the different semiconductor materials constituting CdTe based thin-film solar cell. Table 2 shows the most essential values of the device parameters of CdTe solar cell needed to conduct the simulation [3,9,[16][17][18][19]. …”

Recent Developments in High-Efficiency PV Cells

“…Most recently, a record 16% efficiency has been reported in a CdS(0.4-µm)/CdTe (3.5-µm) thin-film solar cell in which CdS and CdTe films are deposited by metal-organic CVD deposition (MOCVD) and CSS techniques, respectively (Aramoto et al, 1997). Most of the high-efficiency solar cells use a superstrate device configuration in which CdTe is deposited on the CdS window layer.…”

Efficiency of Thin-Film CdS/CdTe Solar Cells

“…This success is attributable to the unique physical properties of CdTe which make it ideal for converting solar energy into useful electricity at an efficiency level comparable to traditional Si technologies, but with the use of only about 1% of the semiconductor material required by Si solar cells. To date, the record efficiencies of laboratory samples of CdS/CdTe solar cells and large-area modules are ~ 16.5 % and less than 10 %, respectively (Britt & Ferekides, 1993;Hanafusa et al, 1997;Meyers & Albright, 2000;Wu et al, 2001;Hanafusa et al, 2001;Bonnet, 2003). Thus, even the record efficiency of such type solar cells is considerable lower than the theoretical limit of 28-30% (Sze, 1981).…”