Laser processes in solar cells are the origin of a considerable mechanical and electrical damage. This paper introduces a model that presents a good fitting to the laser-induced damage, previously characterized as an extra recombination diode, with a highly variable ideality factor, connected to the rest of the structure through an interconnecting resistance, determined by the geometry of the damage and the sheet resistance of the interconnecting layers. In this work, the interconnecting resistance appears to be several orders of magnitude over the expected geometrical value and dependent on the nature of the laser used; the extra recombination diode originated by the laser-induced damage has been found of lower dependence from the laser parameters used and, in all the cases, with an ideality factor of 2. The effect of the laser-induced damage on the I-V curve of the solar cells and the reduction of their V-OC appears to be mainly dependent on the value of this interconnecting resistance which connects or disconnects the damage from the rest of the cell. A soft chemical treatment, compatible with the passivating SiNx, layer, increases the value of this resistance in more than one order of magnitude. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.