A solar cell having backside contacts is economically fabricated through
use of acceptor and donor polymers which are inkjet printed in
interleaved patterns on the back surface as the carrier accepting
electrodes of the solar cell. The polymers can be placed on a tunnel
oxide on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, or the polymers can be
in direct contact with the semiconductor substrate. Electrical patterns
interconnecting the acceptor and donor polymer patterns can also be
formed by inkjet printing a seed layer and then electroplating the seed
layer. Advantageously, high temperature processing is not required in the
process as is required in conventional solar cell fabrication using
dopant implants into the semiconductor substrate. In alternative
embodiments, doped contacts are diffused in the top surface and a polymer
contact is formed over the back surface.