The firing of screen-printed aluminum pastes is well established for the formation of a back surface field (BSF) and back contacts since many years in silicon solar cell fabrication. In this paper we investigate the electrical and microstructural properties of Al-alloyed contacts and their layer system, consisting of (i) the Al-doped p(+) -layer (2-14 mu m), the eutectic layer (1-15 mu m) and the layer of paste residuals (20-100 mu m). We show the influence of process parameters like the amount of printed paste, the alloying time and the peak temperature. Special emphasis is devoted to the properties of small alloyed screen-printed aluminum structures for the formation of local aluminum back contacts. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), electrochemical capacitance voltage (ECV) and conductivity measurements have been applied to characterize the samples. A simple model is qualitatively augmented to describe all effects occurring in a technical alloying process. For example, for increasing aluminum amounts, a saturation of the p(+)-layer thickness was found in the range of 10 mg/cm(2). For small screen-printed structures, the p(+) -layer is formed very homogenously and with a greater thickness compared to samples with a full-area Al metallization, which have been processed with similar alloying conditions. For the eutectic layer a high electrical conductivity of about 16 x 10(6) S/m, only 2-3 times below that of pure aluminum has been determined. This is advantageous for the lateral conductivity especially for high paste amounts and small structures, which feature a relatively thick eutectic layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.