A thin film solar panel is a photovoltaic module that is fabricated on an extremely thin semiconducting absorber layer. Thin film solar panels use a very small amount of semiconductor material to convert light directly into electricity using the photovoltaic effect. The thickness of the semiconductor material is generally 5 microns or less, or about 20 times thinner than a single crystal silicon or polycrystalline silicon wafer. Accordingly photovoltaic devices are classified into bulk type that requires considerable silicon material and thin film type that consumes much less photosensitive material. Conventional monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar cells belong to bulk type.
at the Open Lighting Product Directory (OLPD)
