Low substrate temperature CdTe solar cells: A review

CdTe photovoltaic technology is one of the first being brought into production together with amorphous silicon (already in the mid 90s Solar Cells Inc. in USA, Antec Solar and BP Solar in Europe were producing 60 x 120cm modules) and it is now the largest in production among thin film solar cells (Photovoltaics Report, 2014). CdTe has high chemical stability and a large variety of successful preparation methods available, which makes this technology one of the most suitable for large area module production. Historically there are two large categories of CdTe photovoltaic devices depending on the substrate deposition temperature, typically low temperature processes are considered when substrate temperature is below 450 degrees C. In this paper we will describe the last progress of CdTe based thin film solar cells, fabricated with low substrate temperature process, and their pros and cons.