A two-compartment hybrid tandem cell comprising a dye-sensitized solar cell as top cell and a thermoelectric cell as bottom cell has been developed to increase the overall photovoltaic conversion efficiency by utilization of full solar spectrum. The photovoltaic properties of the four-wire and two-wire hybrid tandem cells have been characterized and the working principle has been demonstrated using the electron energy band diagram. For two-wire hybrid tandem cells, the overall conversion efficiency can be improved by optimal designing DSC module in order to match the output current of the selected thermoelectric cell. Comparing with the individual dye-sensitized solar cell, an efficiency increase of 10% has been obtained for the hybrid tandem cell. The incident light intensity has no influence on the matching of the two compartments of the two-wire hybrid tandem cell. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.