Patent ID: 7678992

Claim:
A thin film photoelectric converter comprising: a transparent electrode film on a transparent substrate; a crystalline silicon photoelectric conversion unit formed on the transparent electrode film and having a photoelectric conversion area; a back electrode film formed on the crystalline silicon photoelectric conversion unit; a plurality of isolation grooves isolating the transparent electrode film, the crystalline silicon photoelectric conversion unit and the back electrode film so as to form a plurality of photoelectric conversion cells; a plurality of connection grooves electrically connecting the plurality of photoelectric conversion cells in series in an integration direction; and a whitish discoloring area formed in the photoelectric conversion area so as to extend alone a boundary parallel to the integration direction of photoelectric conversion area in a range of not less than 2 mm and not more than 10 mm from the boundary of the photoelectric conversion area, the whitish discoloring area occupying not more than 5% of the photoelectric conversion area, wherein the whitish discoloring area occupies not less than 2% of the photoelectric conversion area of the thin film photoelectric converter, wherein the whitish discoloring area is attributed to crystallinity difference in the crystalline silicon as a material of the crystalline silicon photoelectric conversion layer.