Effective self-aligned metallisation schemes, such as the electroless and light induced plating techniques have been well-characterised and used in photovoltaic devices for many decades. However, application of these plating techniques to standard acid-textured, phosphorus-diffused, p-type multi-crystalline silicon (Si) wafers with a plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) silicon nitride (SiNx) coated surface can be problematic due to over-plating. In this paper, we identify the two main causes of over-plating on these wafers: the physical properties of the deposited SiNx layer and the topology of the acid-textured multi-crystalline wafer surfaces. It is shown that the implementation of an innovative acid rounding or alkali etch process prior to the PECVD process can eliminate overplating problems and, thus, improve the performance of the final cell devices resulting in an average efficiency of 16.8% and an average fill factor (FF) of 78% for laser-doped selective emitter cells fabricated on commercial grade wafers with nominal resistivity of 1 Omega cm. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.