Dependence of solar cell contact resistivity measurements on sample preparation methods

The measurement of contact resistivity between the grid metallization of a solar cell and the underlying silicon wafer is most conveniently performed by cutting strips from solar cells rather than fabricating dedicated structures with variable spaced contacts. We studied the effect of strip width on the measurements and found the lowest values in the range of 10–15 mm. We found laser scribing conditions whereby strips could be successfully isolated on the emitter side without snapping strips from the rest of the cell.