In this paper, we present a model of the bow in thin back-contact silicon solar cells with screen-printed (SP) silver grid metallization. A modification of the bimetallic strip model is used to model the bow for the interdigitated back-contact, emitter-wrap-th rough (EWT) solar cell. It is proposed that the contact area fraction of the thick regions ( > 100 nm)of the binder glass at the Ag Si contact interface responsible for metallization adhesion is an important parameter necessary for modeling the bow for SP back-contact solar cells with better accuracy. Techniques for reducing the bow are also proposed. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.