In order to manufacture large area thin film solar modules based on copper indium disulfide/copper indium diselenide, the photovoltaic thin film material is usually deposited on float glass. In this case, the maximum module size depends on the size of the float glass used, as well as on the dimensions of the machinery used for deposition of the thin film. By using small glass beads as a substrate for thin film, we can overcome the restrictions of the float glass approach and are able to separate module size from the reactor dimensions necessary to deposit the photovoltaic material. In this paper, the principal manufacturing steps for such a solar cell and module are introduced and the advantages and challenges of the approach in comparison to those of a flat substrate process are discussed.
