Difference of conduction band minimum (E C ) between transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and absorber, named ΔE C-TA , in thin-film solar cell is investigated for high cell performance using device simulator. According to the simulation, the optimized ΔE C-TA value is different, depending on the carrier density in buffer layer, N D-B . With ΔE C-TA above 0.6 eV for both N D-B s of 1.0 ' 10 13 and 1.0 ' 10 18 cm %3 , the spike is formed at the TCO/ buffer interface, thus decreasing cell performances, especially short-circuit current density owing to impeding photo-generated carriers to TCO. On the other hand, with ΔE C-TA s below %0.2 and %0.4 eV for N D-B s of 1.0 ' 10 13 and 1.0 ' 10 18 cm %3 , the solar cells demonstrate double diode characteristics, thereby decreasing cell efficiency. Eventually, the optimized ΔE C-TA values for high cell performance are proposed to be in the ranges from %0.2 to 0.6 eV and from %0.4 to 0.6 eV for N D-B s of 1.0 ' 10 13 and 1.0 ' 10 18 cm %3 , respectively.