ABSTRACTMAYANGI MA MVUTU. Understanding and mitigating the light-induced degradation in screen printed Al-BSF Cz-Si solar cell by use of IR-belt furnace Rapid Thermal Processing. (Under the direction of DR. ABASIFREKE EBONG)In this study, Rapid Thermal Processing was used to understand and mitigate the light-induced degradation in boron-doped Cz-Si solar cells. Two different design-types of solar cells were used in the experiment to investigate the impact the solar cell design (structure) might have in lifetime recovery. The two design types include 5-Busbar (5BB) and 4-Street-5-Busbar (4S-5BB), with a resistivity of 2 Ω-cm, surface area of 239 cm2, thickness of 0.018 cm, and doping concentration of 7.22 x 1015 cm-3. In the annealing process, the peak temperature of 795°C, belt speed of 210 ipm, and dwell time of less than 2 minutes were used. It was found that solar cell design-type does not affect the lifetime recovery, since both design-types showed similar trends in all electrical output parameters. Also, although the lifetime was fully recovered following the annealing, the efficiency was not, because of contact degradation that resulted in high series resistance and junction recombination. Thus contact firing is key to effective lifetime and efficiency recovery.