N-type phosphorus diffusion in silicon using phosphorus oxychloride, POCl3, has been widely used in the production of p-type silicon solar cells. The thermal diffusion process in a furnace generally involves two steps: pre-deposition and drive-in. The phosphorous doping by thermal diffusion often shows high surface concentrations, leading to an increase in charge recombination, which should be inhibited in order to fabricate high efficiency silicon solar cells. In this study, we investigate the influence of 3 drive-in steps at sequentially increasing temperatures during the POCl3 diffusion on the emitter performance. As a result, it was found that the kink region was made shorter while maintaining surface concentration for a good metal contact without losing its passivation quality. This result is attributed to the higher active dopant concentration of the 3 drive-in step samples, leading to a lower series resistance and higher fill factor in the PERC solar cells. The results show that slight changes in the PSG process conditions can contribute to the improvement of high efficiency solar cells. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.