Today,PERC is the technology of choice in p-type high-efficiency cell manufacturing.Especially for monocrystalline wafers,two main challenges have been identified that limit cell efficiency:emitter performance and silver-based contacts for soldering on the rear of the cell.Applying selective emitter technology has shown to provide excellent emitter performance and be of great benefit to PERC technology.Selective emitters allow for employing ideal firing conditions for the Ag-based front contact and simultaneously rear-side AI-LBSF formation without voids.Thus,cell efficiency in mass production can be increased by 0.3-0.4%.In addition,applying SCHMIDs TinPad technology not only reduces overall manufacturing costs by replacing silver with tin for the rear contacts.TinPad also enables cell efficiency improvement that comes with printing aluminum full area instead of applying local silver-based contacts.To further reduce the cost of PERC manufacturing SCHMID has developed an inline polishing process based on alkaline etching instead of HF/HNO3 etching.Applying this process,cell manufacturing costs can be reduced dramatically while also removing environmental burdens such as emission of nitrous gases (NOx) completely.