American J. of Engineering and Applied Sciences 4 (3): 328-331, 2011 ISSN 1941-7020 © 2014 S. Anizan et al., This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 3.0 license Corresponding Author: Shahrul, A., Solar Energy Research Institute, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Tel: +603-8921 4596 328 Effects of the Contact Resistivity Variations of the Screen-Printed Silicon Solar Cell Shahrul Anizan, Khairymazalee Yusri, Cheow Siu Leong, Nowshad Amin, Saleem Zaidi and Kamaruzzaman Sopian Solar Energy Research Institute, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia Abstract: Problem statement: Unmatched combination of emitter and base contact resistance will influence the total performance of the solar cell. To optimize this combination, single crystalline silicon solar cell was analyzed using quasi-one-dimensional transport of electrons and holes in crystalline semiconductor, PC1D. Approach: Effects of the resistance of the emitter and base contact have been investigated with a view to find the best resistive combinations. A range of contact resistance of emitter and base were applied to PC1D software for evaluation. Results: The short circuit current Isc, the open circuit voltage Voc, the maximum power Pm and the fill factor are the observed parameters due to the variations of the resistance on the emitter and base contact. As the two variable factors that take into the account, while evaluating one factor, the other was set to constant value. It is found that as the contact resistance goes higher, the values of the parameters deceased. Conclusion/Recommendations: From the evaluation, the lowest emitter resistance that will give highest value of parameter in the selected ranged is 1 m while for the base contact will be 15 m. The overall investigation on single crystalline silicon solar cell base and emitter contact were done, gives potential parametric suggestion that may assist in the fabrication of high efficiency single crystalline silicon solar cells. A different range of resistance variation are suggested for future related investigation. Key words: Base contact, emitter contact, crystalline silicon, physic-mathematical PC1D, crystalline silicon solar cells, energy conversion solar cell, Fill Factor (FF), open circuit voltage, conventional screen printing INTRODUCTION There are many aspects to be look on in order to produce a high efficiency energy conversion solar cell, mostly the single crystalline silicon solar cells. The energy conversion efficiency of a solar cell can be significantly increased with the improvement of material properties and the design of structures of the cells (Kabir et al., 2010). Solar cell in the market nowadays comes with various type, sizes and efficiencies. Various photovoltaic options provide to date include high conversion efficiency with low manufacturing cost. Solar manufacturing industries are in the midst of an argument over which material to dominate the future for harvesting sunlight. However the matching of p-n junction depth and texturing must to be optimize first to improve solar cell efficiency (Jahanshah et al., 2009). Solar panels based on silicon currently account for more than 90% of the production with some limitations (Amin, 2011). One of the factors that required increasing the efficiency of a solar cell is by optimising its emitter and base contacts. The silicon solar cell contacts nowadays are commonly realized by screen printing method. In industrial production the most commonly applied technique for the front side metallization of silicon solar cells is screen printing, a reliable and well-understood process with high throughput rates (Erath et al., 2010). Solder pastes were printed on both surface of the cell before it was annealed. Metal semi conductor contact resistance depends beyond the metal involved, on the fabrication process of metallic contact (Yang and Pla, 2009). Metal pastes that usually used for the contacts is aluminium for the back contact and silver for the front contact. These contacts give resistance that affect the efficiency of the solar cell. Optimising it mostly during firing is a must in order to reduce the contact resistance. A contact resistance could also be included by adding a thin resistive layer, which would also model the effects