NOVELTY - The method comprises providing (410) a substrate into a first compartment within a chamber, where the substrate is optically transparent and is characterized by a lateral dimension of greater than or equal to 1 m for manufacturing a thin film photovoltaic cell, forming an electrode layer overlying the substrate, transferring the substrate within the chamber to a second compartment to subject the electrode layer to a copper bearing sputtering target and an indium bearing sputtering target, and forming a copper-bearing layer overlying the electrode layer.    USE - The method is useful for manufacture of multi-junction and single-junction thin film photovoltaic cells in a system with single-chamber configuration having multiple compartments.    ADVANTAGE - The method ensures efficient and large scale manufacture of the thin film photovoltaic cells with high reliability and excellent physical, electrical and optical properties and without damage.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - The method comprises providing (410) a substrate into a first compartment within a chamber, where the substrate is optically transparent and is characterized by a lateral dimension of greater than or equal to 1 m for manufacturing a thin film photovoltaic cell, forming an electrode layer overlying the substrate, transferring the substrate within the chamber to a second compartment to subject the electrode layer to a copper bearing sputtering target and an indium bearing sputtering target, forming a copper-bearing layer overlying the electrode layer, transferring the substrate within the chamber to a third compartment to subject the copper-bearing layer to an indium sputtering target, forming an indium layer overlying the copper-bearing layer for forming a copper-rich copper-indium composite film having a copper:indium atomic ratio of 1.2:1 and greater, transferring the substrate to a fourth compartment within the chamber, where the fourth compartment comprises nozzles for supplying gas phase sulfur-bearing species and heaters for supplying thermal energy, and performing a thermal treatment process to form a photovoltaic absorber layer by reacting the copper-rich copper-indium composite film with the sulfur-bearing species. The substrate comprises a soda lime glass, a quartz, a fused silica, a plastic, or other composite materials. The chamber comprises sputtering targets disposed in series for forming the electrode layer characterized by resistivity of 100-10 ohm-cm and less, and a vacuum ambient having a pressure of less than or equal to 6.2 mTorr. The electrode layer comprises a molybdenum sublayer with a tensile stress followed by another molybdenum sublayer with a compressive stress. The fourth compartment comprises a rapid thermal annealing processor. The heaters are adapted for heating the compartment to room temperature to 500 degrees C. The gas phase sulfur-bearing species comprise a hydrogen sulfide gas and a sulfur vapor from a solid phase sulfide material. The thermal treatment process comprises forming a cap layer made of copper sulfide material covering the photovoltaic absorber layer made of copper-indium-disulfide material. The method further comprises performing a dip process to remove the copper sulfide cap layer away the copper-indium-disulfide material, and performing a doping process to the photovoltaic absorber layer using sodium, boron and/or aluminum of those materials as dopant impurities to form one or more p++ regions. The step of transferring the substrate further comprises moving shutter screens between compartments prior to moving the substrate past the opening defined by the movement of the shutter screens.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The diagram shows a flow chart of a method for large scale manufacture of thin film photovoltaic devices.    Providing glass substrate (410)    Optionally forming barrier layer (420)    Forming backside electrode (430)    Optionally forming another barrier layer (440)    Forming absorber layer (450)    Forming window layer. (460)