Patent ID: 8324015

Claim:
A method of fabricating a back-contact solar cell, the method comprising: forming a poly-crystalline material layer above a single-crystalline substrate; forming a dielectric material stack above the poly-crystalline material layer; forming, by laser ablation, a plurality of contacts holes in the dielectric material stack, each of the contact holes exposing a portion of the poly-crystalline material layer; and forming conductive contacts in the plurality of contact holes; wherein forming the poly-crystalline material layer above the single-crystalline substrate comprises forming a layer of poly-crystalline silicon above a single-crystalline silicon substrate, wherein forming the layer of poly-crystalline silicon above the single-crystalline silicon substrate comprises forming the layer of poly-crystalline silicon directly on a dielectric film, the dielectric film formed directly on the single-crystalline silicon substrate, and forming both N-type and P-type doped regions in the layer of poly-crystalline silicon.