To meet the rapidly increasing global demand for energy, the potential of solar energy is being exploited towards its maximum capacity. The invention of poly-Si based passivating contacts has created an opportunity for c-Si solar cells to reach conversion efficiencies above 25%, while keeping the processing sequence relatively simple. Based on ultra-thin SiO푥 and highly doped poly-Si, this contact structure combines chemical passivation with field-effect passivation to enhance the c-Si surface passivation. Ever since 2016, the carrier transport mechanism through pinholes in the SiO푥 has been investigated, showing that the pinholes can aid in achieving a low contact resistivity (휌푐) while maintaining a low recombination (퐽0). In this work, the presence of pinholes and their impact on the passivation quality in poly-Si passivating contacts is investigated. Additionally, a method is explored to extract the metal-induced recombination (퐽0,푚푒푡푎푙), without the need for fabricating a solar cell structure...