The present invention relates to alternative equipment for solar energy prospecting with a focus on low cost, low complexity in installation, operation and maintenance, and high reliability. A low-cost solarimetric station consists of compact equipment capable of providing global irradiance measurements and estimates for direct and diffuse components, as well as hemispheric photographs, with acceptable levels of uncertainty. The pyranometer periodically provides global irradiance information to the system, and the camera records photos of the sky. Using machine learning algorithms, and based on that information, the equipment provides estimates for direct and diffuse irradiance components. The equipment has other meteorological sensors, GPS, and wireless communication facilities. The equipment has an energy supply and management system consisting of a photovoltaic module, charge controller, and battery, which provide the energy necessary for the station to operate.

An apparatus comprises an array of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Each of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is configured to be a source of light. The apparatus also comprises an optical arrangement configured to receive light from a plurality of the vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and to output a plurality of light beams.

A photon detection device according to an aspect of the present invention includes: a superconducting photon detector array in which a plurality of superconducting photon detectors (SPDs) are arranged; a plurality of first transmission lines connected to the plurality of SPDs and configured to transmit a detection current output from each of the plurality of SPDs; an address information generation circuit connected to the plurality of first transmission lines and configured to generate, based on the detection current, an address information signal that specifies a superconducting photon detector from which the detection current is output; a second transmission line magnetically coupled to all of the plurality of first transmission lines; and a time information generation circuit connected to the second transmission line and configured to generate, based on the detection current, a time information signal indicating a time at which a photon is incident on the plurality of superconductive photon detection SPDs.

An integrated circuit includes a photodetection region configured to receive incident photons. The photodetection region is configured to produce a plurality of charge carriers in response to the incident photons. The integrated circuit includes a charge carrier storage region.

The integrated circuit also includes a charge carrier segregation structure configured to selectively direct charge carriers of the plurality of charge carriers directly into the at least one charge carrier storage region based upon times at which the charge carriers are produced.

A solid-state image sensor including photoelectric conversion parts having a vertical overflow drain structure is made usable as, for example, a distance measuring sensor with high accuracy. In the solid-state image sensor, a pixel array part is formed in a well region of a second conductive type formed at a surface part of a semiconductor substrate of a first conductive type. In the pixel array part, photoelectric conversion parts each of which converts incident light into signal charges and has the vertical overflow drain structure (VOD) are arranged in a matrix form. Substrate discharge pulse signal φSub for controlling potential of the VOD is applied to a signal terminal. An impurity induced part into which impurity of the first type is induced is formed below a connecting part in the semiconductor substrate.

A light receiver (50) is provided having a plurality of avalanche photodiode elements (10) that are each biased by a bias above a breakdown voltage and that are thus operated in a Geiger mode to trigger a Geiger current on light reception, wherein the avalanche photodiode elements (10) have a first connector (20, 22, 28a-b) and a second connector (20, 22, 28a-b); and wherein a first signal tapping circuit (12) for reading out the avalanche photodiode elements is connected to one of the connectors (20, 22, 28a-b). In this respect, a second signal tapping circuit (12) for reading out the avalanche photodiode elements (10) is connected to the other connector (20, 22, 28a-b).

A semiconductor detector for tracking of point-like sources comprises a plurality of pixels. The pixels are arranged in a rectangular lattice. Each pixel has a surface with a photosensitive region for detecting light. The photosensitive region has a geometric layout adapted to reduce a signal variation if the point source moves from a first pixel to a second pixel, wherein the second pixel is located at an adjacent lattice position with respect to the first pixel.

There is provided a solid-state image pickup device including: a semiconductor substrate; a photodiode formed in the semiconductor substrate; a transistor having a gate electrode part or all of which is embedded in the semiconductor substrate, the transistor being configured to read a signal electric charge from the photodiode via the gate electrode; and an electric charge transfer layer provided between the gate electrode and the photodiode.

An infrared imager includes a first optical component, a second optical component, and at least one thin film dielectric layer. The first optical component has multiple first parallel conductors with a first spacing pattern, aligned in a plane perpendicular to an axis. The second optical component has multiple second parallel conductors with a second spacing pattern, aligned in a plane perpendicular to the axis, angularly offset from the first direction. The thin film dielectric layer includes a refractive index change (RIC) material disposed between and in contact with the first and second parallel conductors. The first optical component, second optical component, and at least one thin film dielectric layer form an antenna array configured to detect one or more predetermined infrared wavelengths based on at least one of the first spacing pattern or the second spacing pattern or the angular offset.

There is provided an optical sensor including a photodiode, a wave converter, a pixel array and a processor. The photodiode detects ambient light flicker to generate sine waves. The wave converter converts the sine waves to square waves. The processor uses a sampling frequency to count the square waves, and identifies whether the ambient light flicker is well detected according to a counting value of each square wave and a counting value variation of multiple square waves within a count period to accordingly determine whether to adjust an acquiring phase of the image frame.