Low cost processing of CIGS thin film solar cells

A set of low cost techniques with realistic potential for direct manufacturing costs reduction were developed in the last five years while the industrial Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGS) solar cell production is based on vacuum processes, which require high initial investment into production machines. The common properties of these low cost techniques are the use of simple and fast non-vacuum deposition methods and the prefixing of the film-composition on a molecular level in a precursor layer, which is chemically and thermally treated to form a high quality CIGS film. The paste coating approaches use premixed inks which are applied by doctor-blade coating to yield solar cell efficiencies of 13.6%, with the potential to reach 15% and more in the next years. The choice of the precursor material has to be made with respect to the used selenization conditions to avoid detrimental impurity phases. A new precursor material is discussed, which allows fast conversion in selenium atmosphere and was used to produce solar cells with 6.7% efficiency. The CIGS film thickness has to be increased for complete absorption of the incident light. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.