Construction of an in-line system to produce CdS/CdTe solar cells

This work involved the construction of an in-line system, where CdS and CdTe depositions, CdCl₂ vapor treatment and ZnTe deposition were performed by close-spaced sublimation technique without the necessity of opening the system. The system allowed easy movement by rotating the substrate to the deposition regions. The time spent to produce solar cells in the new system (up to 120 min) was considerably shorter than those achieved in other works to perform similar steps with vacuum break. The new system allowed the substrate was positioned in the deposition region after the source and substrate graphite blocks were already heated, resulting in a high initial nucleation rate and the production of dense and continuous films, suitable for production of high efficiency cells. The first cells, with an area of 1 cm², showed efficiencies up to 7%.