The transparent top electrode of a solar cell is another challenging layer in a thin-film solar cell: it has to live up to the challenge of simultaneously delivering both high optical transmissivity and high electrical conductivity. Few materials and designs can satisfy this.

Conventional processes for depositing high-quality top-electrode layer are throughput limited due to the high cost of vacuum equipment used for depositing such layers conventionally.

Nanosolar has developed a fundamentally new way of producing high-quality transparent electrodes – in a way that enables large-area cells with very marginal power loss only.  This patent-pending technology is one of the unprecedented parts of Nanosolar’s first product.