The silicon solar cell with selective pillars is fabricated by Cesium Chloride (CsCI) self-assembly lithography and UV-lithography. This solar cell has pillars selectively in the active area (i.e. emitter exposed to light) while keeping electrode area plain to overcome the problem of metal contacts on pillars' surface. CsCI self-assembly and dry etching are used to make silicon pillars only on the active silicon surface as antireflection layer for the solar cell. UV-lithography is used to provide the selective area for the silicon pillars fabrication and the pattern for electrode. Ti/Ag layer is deposited on the electrode pattern surface with the alignment shadow mask by thermal evaporation. The solar cell with selective pillars has the lower reflectivity below 5% in the spectral ranging from 400 to 1000 nm compared to the planar cell without antireflection coating, and it also has the better electrode contacts compared to the cell with pillars all over the entire front surface. The photovoltaic conversion efficiency (PCE) improves from 12.18% to 15.37% at the experiment condition. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.