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In this work, tunnel SiO 2 /a-Si:H stacks are trialed as passivated contacts to laser doped p + and n + regions. The passivation performance and contact resistivity are investigated as a function of the tunnel SiO 2 thickness and annealing condition. We find that the SiO 2 /a-Si:H stack provides excellent passivation to laser doped n + regions, with corresponding low recombination current density ( J o ) values. A lower level of surface passivation is achieved by the SiO 2 /a-Si:H stack on laser doped p + regions. A post-deposition forming gas anneal (FGA) at 400 °C is found to improve the passivation performance to laser doped p + regions and deteriorate the passivation to laser doped n + regions. Acceptable contact resistivity ( ρ c ) values have been obtained for both laser doped n + and p + regions after aluminum metallization and a post FGA to activate the alloying process between the a-Si:H and aluminum layer. In the final part of this work implementation of the passivated contacts to laser doped regions into a simplified interdigitated back-contact (IBC) solar cell fabrication process is proposed. Simulation result suggests that IBC device with an efficiency of up to 23% can be achieved using the obtained experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]