Selective deposition contact (SDC) patterning was applied to fabricate the rear side passivation of crystalline silicon (Si) solar cells. By this method, using screen printing for contact patterning and atomic layer deposition for the passivation of Si solar cells with Al2O3, we produced local contacts without photolithography or any laser-based processes. Passivated emitter and rear-contact solar cells passivated with ozone-based Al2O3 showed, for the SDC process, an up-to-0.7% absolute conversion-efficiency improvement. The results of this experiment indicate that the proposed method is feasible for conversion-efficiency improvement of industrial crystalline Si solar cells. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.