Heavily B-doped silicon ribbons were prepared by modified silicon sheets from powder (SSP) technique using 9 N purity electronic-grade silicon powder. Utilizing the SSP ribbons as substrates, crystalline silicon thin film (CSiTF) solar cells have been fabricated by direct epitaxy method. As-prepared CSiTF solar cells were characterized by illuminated and dark I-V characteristic measurement, Suns-V-oc measurement, quantum efficiency (QE) and reflectance measurement. The results show that the CSiTF solar cells have poor performance with typical efficiency eta only about 4.25%, and nearly all the characteristic parameters are far away from the ideal values. By detailed analysis and discussion on the measured results, it was found that grain boundary (GB) recombination in the active layers and electrical leakage at the edge of the PN junctions play a major role in deteriorating the performance of the CSiTF solar cells, which lead to higher dark saturation current Is and lower parallel resistance R-sh, respectively. By improving the preparation process, such as optimization of the epitaxy process, use of remote plasma hydrogen passivation (RPHP), optimization of the metallization and use of double layer anti-reflection (DLAR) coatings, etc., all the characteristic parameters of the CSiTF solar cells have been greatly improved, and the best efficiency value increased to 8.02%. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.