This paper details the results of a study in which low H content, high deposition rate hot wire (HW) deposited amorphous silicon ( a -Si:H) has been incorporated into a substrate solar cell. We find that the treatment of the top surface of the HW i -layer while it is cooled from its high deposition temperature is crucial to device performance. We present data concerning these surface treatments, and correlate these treatments with Schottky device performance. We also present first generation HW n-i-p solar cell data, where a glow discharge (GD) μc- Si (p) layer completes the partial devices. No light trapping layer is used to increase the device Jsc. Our preliminary results yield efficiencies of up to 6.8% for a cell with a 4000 Å thick HW i -layer, which degrade less than 10% after a 900h AM1 light soak. We suggest areas for further improvement of our devices.