We have introduced the Mercury cell: an IBC cell featuring a Front Floating Emitter (FFE).A conductive FFE makes a wider BSF possible than in FSF cells, allowing larger features and simplified processing.In an FSF cell, recombination above the BSF (electrical shading) becomes a problem when the width of the BSF is increased.In an IBC cell with a FFE electrical shading above the BSF is avoided above the BSF, which is brought about by the pumping effect: the FFE can collect minorities generated above the BSF, transport them to above the emitter as majorities -without recombination losses-and re-inject them into the base above the rear emitter for subsequent collection.