Cd powders with various average particle sizes and plate-like shape have been prepared by varying the grinding method and grinding condition, and photovoltaic properties of sintered CdS/CdTe solar cells were investigated as a function of particle size of the Cd+Te powder. The particle size of Te was fixed to ~2μm. The efficiency of the CdS/CdTe solar cells, which contained 5wt% $CdCl_2$ in the Cd+Te powder and were sintered at 625℃for 60min in nitrogen to form the heterojunction, increases with an increase in the average particle size of the Cd powder up to 3~4μm and then decreases with further increase in the particle size. A sintered CdS/CdTe solar cell that was fabricated by using a Cd powder with an average particle size of ~4μm shows solar efficiency of 10.5% when measured under a tungsten lamp with intensities of $50mW/cm^2$.
All-polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cells fabricated by using plate-like Cd powders show higher efficiency than those by using spherical Cd power and a conversion efficiency of 10.3% under a tunsten lamp with an intensites of $50mW/cm^2$ was found in solar cells fabricated by using ~8μm plate-like Cd powders.