Jan Benick, who is working on his doctorate in the group for high- efficiency silicon solar cells, managed to develop a highly efficient cell process especially for n-type cells that uses boron diffusion to make the emitter; the efficiency is 23.4%– the highest efficiency ever reached for this cell type.

"Most commercial silicon solar cells are currently p-types," Fraunhofer ISE’s group manager Dr. Martin Hermle explains. "But the new n-type silicon used for the novel solar cell structures developed at ISE has better properties for photovoltaic electricity production, such as greater tolerance for most impurities.”

In addition, p-type Czrochalski (Cz) silicon suffers from light-induced degradation, which does not occur with n-type silicon.

Fraunhofer ISE continues to further develop process technology for n-type solar cells so that industrially manufactured silicon solar cells can reach efficiency rates exceeding 20% quickly.