NOVELTY - Manufacture of array of multiple photovoltaic cells (10) involves providing cells having semiconductor material deposited on self supporting metal-based cell foil (12); providing materials in addition to those incorporated into cells, where additional materials have (non)conductive materials; providing first unit of interconnecting substrate, where unit has combination of additional (non)conductive materials forming (non)conductive upper surface regions of unit; and positioning first of the cells over portion of conductive upper surface region of first unit.    USE - For manufacture of an array of multiple photovoltaic cells (claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The photovoltaic junction and its metal foil support can be produced in bulk without the need to use the expensive and intricate material removal operation currently taught in the art to achieve series interconnections. The method allows facile production of photovoltaic semiconductor structures while offering unique way to achieve efficient integrated connections to result in final modular array. The method permits inexpensive production of high efficiency thin film photovoltaic cells while simultaneously permitting the use of polymer based substrate materials and associated processing to efficiently interconnect those cells. The method provides an improved process that allows economical mass-production of expansive area, interconnected photovoltaic arrays.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Manufacture of an array of multiple photovoltaic cells (10) involves providing multiple photovoltaic cells comprising semiconductor material deposited on a self supporting metal-based cell foil (12), where the cells have a top surface and a conductive bottom surface formed by the metal-based cell foil; providing materials in addition to those incorporated into the cells, where the additional materials comprises both first conductive and first non-conductive materials; providing a first unit of interconnecting substrate, where the first unit has planar upper surface and comprising a combination of the additional conductive and non-conductive materials forming conductive and non-conductive upper surface regions of the unit respectively; positioning a first of the multiple photovoltaic cells over a portion of the conductive upper surface region of the first unit and establishing electrical communication between the the conductive bottom surface of the first cell and the portion of conductive upper surface region, where the positioning is such that a portion of the conductive material forming the conductive upper surface region extends outside a terminal edge of the first cell thereby providing for electrical connection made to the extending portion of the conductive material, where the extending portion is spaced apart from the the top surface of a second of the multiple cells. The metal-based cell foil comprises multiple layers of metal-based material. The non-conductive upper surface region of the first unit is formed by the additional non-conductive material overlaying the additional conductive material. The additional conductive material comprises an electrically conductive polymer; or a metal-based foil; or electrodeposited metal. The additional non-conductive material comprises a polymeric film. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for forming array of photovoltaic cells involving: production of cell structure comprising semiconductor material supported on a first metal-based foil and having a top surface facing in a first direction and a conductive bottom surface formed by the first metal-based foil facing in a second direction opposite the first direction, where the cell structure production employs at least one continuous processing step where the first metal-based foil is provided in a continuous form; providing materials in addition to those incorporated into the cells, the additional materials comprising both conductive and non-conductive materials; combining the additional materials and the cell structure to form an array of multiple portions of the cell structure, where the combining including providing a unit of interconnecting substrate having a substantially planar upper surface, the additional conductive and non-conductive materials forming respective conductive and non-conductive upper surface regions of the unit.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows sectional view of thin film photovoltaic structure.    Thin film photovoltaic structure (1)    Photovoltaic cells (10)    Thin film semiconductor structure (11)    Metal-based foil structure (12)    Processable metal (13)    Additional metal-based layer (14)    Top electrode (18)    Light-incident top surface (59)    Top surface of foil structure (65)    Bottom electrode surface (66)    Material. (75)