The design and fabrication of high‐efficiencyp+‐n‐n+back‐surface‐field silicon solar cells are described. The fabrication process has been developed to yield maximum attainable carrier lifetimes (∼0.7 msec) in the base region of the cell, thereby allowing the backn‐n+junction to effectively enhance the cell performance. A surprising conclusion drawn from a study of the device physics supporting the experimental development of the cell is that the front‐surface recombination velocity controls the recombination in the emitter. That is, the bulkp+emitter is ’’transparent’’ to minority‐carrier (electron) flow. The recognition of the significance of the front silicon surface has led to process modifications that result in improvements in both the short‐circuit current density and the open‐circuit voltage of the cell. With these improvements, the cells exhibit AMl conversion efficiencies of nearly 17%. The fabrication process is reliable and reproducible with exceptionally high yield.