NOVELTY - A cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device (10) comprises: substrate (12); transparent conductive oxide layer (14) on substrate; metal gridlines (15) directly contacting the conductive layer, where the gridlines are oriented in first direction; cadmium sulfide layer (18) on the conductive layer; and cadmium telluride layer (20) on the sulfide layer, where the scribe lines are defined through thickness of the sulfide layer and cadmium telluride layer to define photovoltaic cells such that scribe lines are oriented in second direction that intersects with first direction.    USE - As a cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device (claimed), used in solar cell applications.    ADVANTAGE - The cadmium telluride based photovoltaic device minimizes loss of current, without increasing the thickness of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer. The metal gridline is generally oriented in a direction that intersects with the direction of the scribe lines separating individual cells in the device, thus decreases the resistance of the transparent conductive oxide layer in the direction of the electrical current (i.e. from one cell to the adjacent cell separated by the scribe lines), and therefore increases the efficiency of the device; is able to allow to form larger cells in the device; and effectively increases the active area of the device, which leads to greater efficiencies.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - A cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device (10) comprises: substrate (12); transparent conductive oxide layer (14) on the substrate; metal gridlines (15) directly contacting the transparent conductive oxide layer, where the metal gridlines are oriented in a first direction; cadmium sulfide layer (18) on the transparent conductive oxide layer; and cadmium telluride layer (20) on the cadmium sulfide layer, where the scribe lines are defined through the thickness of the cadmium sulfide layer and the cadmium telluride layer to define photovoltaic cells such that the scribe lines are oriented in a second direction that intersects with the first direction. The metal gridlines are between the substrate and the transparent conductive oxide layer. The metal gridlines are within the thickness of the transparent conductive oxide layer. The device further comprises: a resistive transparent buffer layer between the transparent conductive oxide layer and the cadmium sulfide layer; graphite layer on the cadmium telluride layer, and metal contact layer on the graphite layer.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows cross-sectional view of cadmium telluride thin film photovoltaic device.    Cadmium telluride based thin film photovoltaic device (10)    Substrate (12)    Transparent conductive oxide layer (14)    Metal gridlines (15)    Cadmium sulfide layer (18)    Cadmium telluride layer (20)