Application of ICSVT technology in manufacturing thick-layer CdTe solar cells

The production of solar cells has become the number one in modern implementations of thick-layer technology in optoelectronics. Through invented and developed in the second half of the current century yet, recently these devices have achieved the crossroad point in their evolution. There are two ways under consideration: the modification of the monocrystalline silicon cell - the non-incipient one that is well recognised and efficient, and the polycrystalline , heterojunction technology which is bloomed in the last few years. Its properties have been kept under intensive investigation still but it is obvious that this one may project their much lower final cost together with almost monocrystalline range of sunlight conversion efficiency. These features will certainly diminish production costs of one peak watt (one watt of electrical energy, obtained in optimal conversion conditions), what is essential for the competency of solar cells as an alternative energy source. CdTe-CdS type cells are heading in this wide researching, owing to their unique features connected with both optical and electrical properties of these materials' combination. When these cells are properly formed, one should expect the competitively high conversion efficiency together with possibility of some untypical, specific implementations (ex. on elastic foils) accompanied by a rather low material consumption. This communicate makes a report from our researches of the new, more efficient technology to form the layers of the type mentioned above, named: ICSVT (Isothermal Close-Space Vapour Transport), combined with some applications of the well known screen-printing technique. (author)