We present a comprehensive study of microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) at 13.56 MHz excitation frequency. In the first step the cell development was performed in a small area PECVD reactor showing the relationship between the deposition process parameters and the resulting solar cell performance. Focus was on the influence of deposition pressure, electrode distance and the application of a pulsed plasma on high rate deposition of solar cells. Subsequent up-scaling to a substrate area of 30 × 30 cm2 confirmed the suitability of the process for large area reactors. The influence of i-layer deposition parameters on solar cell performance was studied directly in p-i-n cells prepared on textured ZnO. Solar cell efficiencies up to 9% were achieved at deposition rates of 5-6 Å/s for the i-layer using high plasma powers. Applied as bottom cell in a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem cells a stable cell efficiency of 11.2% could be obtained. The excellent homogeneity was proven by the realization of first modules with an aperture area of 689 cm2 and an active area initial efficiency of 10.3% (stable: 8.9%) using an established base technology for laser patterning and back contact sputtering at RWE Solar GmbH. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.