efforts were concentrated on studies of junction formation by ion implantation, metallization by silk screen printing, spray-on antireflection (ar) coating, and interconnections by welding and reflow solder. ion-implantation studies have shown that the cell efficiency and open-circuit voltage increase with increasing exp 31 p up to 5 x 10 exp 15 ion dosage. the metallization studies have been concerned with the characterization of commercially obtained inks as well as the in-house synthesis of several inks. the spray-on ar coating studies have resulted in the definition of a series of process steps which yield an ar coating of satisfactory uniformity in thickness and reproducibility from run to run. it was concluded on the basis of present studies that welding is not a suitable assembly process for cells of current design and a solder reflow technique is being studied. as an alternate to the pvb lamination technique, casting methyl methacrylate-butyl acrylate resin between the glass plates is under consideration. the approach to solving this problem is described. (era citation 04:007677)