SYSTEMATIZED AND SIMPLIFIED PROCESSING OF CuInGaSe2 THIN FILMS TO BE APPLIED ON SOLAR CELLS

Abstract

Results of processing and characterization of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin films growth by thermal co-evaporation with adequate physical properties to be used in solar cells are presented in this work. Cadmium Sulfide (CdS) as window material with 40 nm of thickness were deposited by chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique. A Molybdenum (Mo) layer was deposited as back contact on CIGS solar cells. Different CIGS thin films were processed by a simplified co-evaporation technique and revealed a good polycrystalline quality with an alfa-chalcopyrite phase. The stoichiometry of the CIGS thin films can be accurately controlled using a fully automated single vacuum photovoltaics manufacturing system. Automated system operations (ASO) is the set of software and hardware that allows computer systems, network devices or machines to function without any manual intervention. ASOs allow computer systems to work without a human operator physically located at the site where the system is installed. CIGS solar cells fabricated in this work, showed photovoltaic efficiencies close to 11 %.