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There is a desire within the monocrystalline silicon solar cell industry to reduce manufacturing costs and to improve cell performance. One approach to achieving this desire is to reduce wafer thickness and to use higher lifetime wafers, for example FZ(B), MCZ(B) and CZ(Ga). In this paper the manufacturing and design issues critical to the success of this approach are investigated through the analysis of double-sided buried contact solar cells fabricated on thin and thick commercial silicon wafers. These devices were fabricated on five commercially available wafer types - FZ(B), MCZ(B), CZ(Ga) and two different CZ(B) - at two wafer thicknesses, 150 mm and 245 mm. Analysis of the results highlight the importance of both design related issues (e.g. light trapping), and manufacturing related issues (e.g. process-induced defects) to the successful manufacture of commercial high-efficiency silicon solar cells.