Calculating the specific contact resistance from the nanostructure at the interface of silver thick film contacts on n-type silicon

Nanoscale silver crystals located on the silicon surface at the interface of silver thick film contacts carry the current across the contacts. By quantifying the interface area between the silver crystals and the silicon from scanning electron microscopy images of the silicon surface beneath the contact, we calculate the macroscopic specific contact resistance for contacts of different quality. We find good agreement with experimental contact resistance measurements. The presented results enable the prediction of the macroscopic specific contact resistance from the nanostructure found at the contact interface.