Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of cadmium telluride-first PV devices

Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) is being developed for large-area manufacturing of CdTe thin films. This process employs the same deposition chemistry as close-space sublimation, and should therefore yield films with similar properties. Films demonstrating these similarities have been deposited, and devices with NREL-confirmed global AM 1.5 efficiency of 10.6% (787 mV Voc, 21.1 mA/cm/sup 2/ J/sub sc/, 0.64 FF) have been fabricated.