In this work, we present a novel fire-through contact (FTC) approach for the formation of local rear contacts for rear surface passivated silicon solar cells. The FTC approach aims at an easy integration of rear surface passivation into typical production lines. Besides rear surface passivation, no new technology is required as FTC only relies on common printing equipment. In this work, different FTC contact geometries and printing approaches are investigated using lifetime and resistance measurements. A PC1D model is implemented to allow for a comparison of different FTC configurations on cell level. Finally, the integration of the FTC approach into metal wrap through solar cells is presented. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.