dielectric 360 and or conductive material 330 are continuous around a perimeter of semiconductor mesa 320 embodiments are not limited thereto in this regard dielectric 360 may be disposed only at locations where conductive material 330 traverses over the mesa edge to insulate mesa side wall 324 from any such material 330 the fig4 cross section is taken across a contact material 326 of mesa top surface 322 fig4 shows dielectric 360 overlapping side wall 324 and conductive material 330 overlapping dielectric 360 as shown in fig3 the embodiments pictured in fig2 through 8 each include a frame of conductive material which defines an outer limit of an active area and which is at least partially disposed on top of a semiconductor mesa in some embodiments no such frame is disposed on top of the semiconductor mesa instead a dielectric is disposed from above the mesa over a mesa edge and to the chip edge as shown in fig3 and the conductive grid lines are extended across the mesa edge to a contact ring placed on the dielectric above the semiconductor base such an arrangement may further increase the size of the active area as a percentage of semiconductor material fig5 is a top view of solar cell 500 according to some embodiments solar cell 500 provides conductive contacts of opposite polarities on a same side of solar cell 500 accordingly a complete electrical circuit may.