Thin film cadmium telluride absorbers with cadmium sulphide hetero-junction partner are promising candidates for high efficiency low cost solutions of solar energy harvesting devices. These devices have band gaps well-suited for effective absorption of sunlight. Most importantly, the materials used in these devices can be deposited in a variety of industry-friendly ways, so that the cost associated with manufacturing is generally lower than other available technologies. Although poly-crystalline CdS has been found to be the best suited heterojunction partner for CdTe solar cell, the...

At present, autonomous wireless sensor network (WSN) components are extensively powered up using batteries. Due to limitations in batteries, it incurs huge maintenance cost and for remote and inaccessible areas battery replacement is simply impossible. To overcome this issue, an integrated Energy Harvester (EH) is proposed and developed here. Solar based EH has been identified as the most viable source of energy to be harvested for WSN components. Moreover, a novel chemical based EH is reported as the potential secondary source for harvesting energy because of its uninterrupted availability....

The conversion efficiency of a solar cell can substantially be increased by improved material properties and associated designs. In this book, it has been shown that how the parametric optimization can lead to successful design of amorphous silicon thin film solar cells by using a software called AMPS-1D (Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures) prior to fabrication. Solar cells of single junction based on hydrogenated amorphous (a-Si: H) have been analyzed by using AMPS-1D simulator. The efficiency of single junction a-Si: H can be achieved as high as over 19% after parametric...