Thin film Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se) 2-based (generally referred to as CIGS) solar cells represent a promising alternative to conventional crystalline silicon solar cells due to their high efficiencies, reduced cost, and better material utilization. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to form thin films by annealing nanoparticulate material such that the nanoparticles coalesce to form large grained thin films. In this paper, we present a 13.8% efficient CIGS solar cell derived from printed nanoparticle inks. The approach was successfully extended to fabricate monolithic devices on larger substrates. These results demonstrate that lowcost, nonvacuum printing of CIGS nanoparticles has great potential to achieve high efficiencies and reduce the performance gap with the more traditional vacuum co-evaporation and sputtering techniques. Index Terms-CIGS and CdTe thin film solar cells, nanoparticles, photovoltaic cells, thin film PV modules and manufacturing. I. INTRODUCTION T HE photovoltaic market is currently dominated by silicon wafer-based solar cells [1]. In this type of solar cells, the active layer is made of single-crystal wafers produced by a process that involves fabricating and slicing high-purity, singlecrystal silicon ingots. This process is expensive and although much of the manufacturing and module equipment has become standardized, the production of crystalline silicon solar cells remains cost-intensive and is characterized by relatively poor material utilization. The high cost of crystalline silicon wafers has prompted both industry and academia to investigate alternative Manuscript
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