The aim of this work was to study the effect of solar cell processing steps on the electrical quality of the material, using photoluminescence spectroscopy as a non-contact technique. It was confirmed that consecutive steps in solar cell processing not only lead to electronic quality upgrading in Ribbon and multicrystalline silicon wafers, but also to the introduction of recombining defects. Furthermore, the importance and usefulness of photoluminescence technique on the overall improvement of the substrate material is discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.