The effect of germanium (Ge) doping on the pet lot of high-performance multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) has been investigated in this work. The Ge doping in the me-Si ingot could reduce the concentration of FeB complexes and dislocation density, resulting in the improvement of minority carrier lifetime. Due to this reduction in dislocation density, the mechanical strength of the me-Si wafers was enhanced by Ge doping. The preliminary experimental results showed that the average conversion efficiency of Ge-doped mc-Si solar cells was higher than that of normal undoped me-Si solar cells under the same solar cell fabrication processes. Consequently, we propose that Ge doping is beneficial for the fabrication of higher performance of me-Si solar cells. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.