Phosphorus ink technology has been demonstrated as a simple and cheap method to realize selective emitter (SE) crystalline silicon solar cells through mass production in a professional photovoltaic company. We have achieved an average conversion efficiency (eta) of 19.01% with peak eta of 19.27% for the SE solar cells based on commercial-grade p-type silicon substrate, much higher than that of the homogeneous emitter counterparts whose average eta is 18.56%. The standard deviation of the performance for these SE solar cells is also smaller, indicating better repeatability of the phosphorus ink SE technology. Moreover, the SE silicon solar cells can well adapt to various Ag pastes while preserving high cell performance, which offers an opportunity to choose a cheap Ag paste as front metallization material. With the aid of PC1D, we have shown that the of the SE solar cells can be further improved as the sheet resistance in the illuminated area increases from the present value of 70 to 120 Omega/boxed dot. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.