The Annealing of Ion-Implanted Silicon Solar Cells

This work will review the main radiation damage annealing procedures applied to ion implanted silicon solar cells made on either single crystal or semicrystalline substrates. Details on the physics of the crystallographic recovery and dopant electrical activation mechanisms will be kept to a minimum, while emphasis will be given on their suitability and effectiveness for beeing included in a high efficiency, potentially low cost high throughput solar cells fabrication procedure. Neither exhaustive bibliography nor a complete survey of the research activity in the field will be attempted, and only the most typical or interesting results (to author's judgement and knowledge) will be discussed.