Printing stencil and printing devices for forming conductor paths on a substrate and method for producing a metal contact structure of a photovoltaic cell

A method for producing a metallic contact structure of a photovoltaic solar cell, the method comprising the following method steps:

• applying printing medium to a squeegee side (R) of a printing stencil (1);
• and
• printing the printing medium through printing gaps (4) in the printing stencil (1) via at least one squeegee in order to apply a printing medium structure to a solar cell substrate on a substrate side(S) of the printing stencil opposite the squeegee side (R),
• the printing stencil (1) is formed as a planar printing stencil (1), having the substrate side(S) and the squeegee side (R) opposite the substrate side(S), and
• each printing gap (4) of the plurality of printing gaps (4) has at least one print definition region (3) adjacent to the printing side and at least one printing medium supply region (2) adjacent to the squeegee side (R), a volume of the print definition region (3) being smaller than a volume of the printing medium supply region (2),
• the volume of the print medium supply region (2) has a squeegee side surface area that is not internally limited by a structure,
• the printing medium supply region (2) has an increasing gap width in a direction of the squeegee side (R),
• and at least one of
• a) walls of the print definition region (3) form a first opening angle (α) which is smaller than a second opening angle (β) formed by walls of the printing medium supply region (2), or
• b) the print definition region (3) has an increasing gap width in a direction of the substrate side(S).