The paper introduces a new type of series connection that considerably increases the active area and thus the efficiency of a thin film module by a superior arrangement of the patterning grooves. The new concept is mainly based on pointwise contacts instead of continuous, stripe‐like contacts between adjacent cell stripes combined with a modified arrangement of the isolation grooves. We describe the functionality of the innovative series connection and present a method to calculate the optimal cell stripe geometry for cells based on the new series connection concept. Finally, the applicability of the new concept for a laser‐patterned thin film silicon solar module is demonstrated. The new series connection leads to a relative efficiency increase of approximately 3% compared with the standard series connection for thin film modules. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.