ABSTRACTReducing absorber layer thickness below 500 nm in regular Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells decreases cell efficiency considerably, as both short‐circuit current and open‐circuit voltage are reduced because of incomplete absorption and high Mo/CIGS rear interface recombination. In this work, an innovative rear cell design is developed to avoid both effects: a highly reflective rear surface passivation layer with nano‐sized local point contact openings is employed to enhance rear internal reflection and decrease the rear surface recombination velocity significantly, as compared with a standard Mo/CIGS rear interface. The formation of nano‐sphere shaped precipitates in chemical bath deposition of CdS is used to generate nano‐sized point contact openings. Evaporation of MgF2 coated with a thin atomic layer deposited Al2O3 layer, or direct current magnetron sputtering of Al2O3 are used as rear surface passivation layers. Rear internal reflection is enhanced substantially by the increased thickness of the passivation layer, and also the rear surface recombination velocity is reduced at the Al2O3/CIGS rear interface. (MgF2/)Al2O3 rear surface passivated ultra‐thin CIGS solar cells are fabricated, showing an increase in short circuit current and open circuit voltage compared to unpassivated reference cells with equivalent CIGS thickness. Accordingly, average solar cell efficiencies of 13.5% are realized for 385 nm thick CIGS absorber layers, compared with 9.1% efficiency for the corresponding unpassivated reference cells. © 2014 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.