Provided are a solar cell, a manufacturing method thereof and a photovoltaic module. The solar cell includes a semiconductor substrate, the semiconductor substrate having a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other; a first passivation layer and a first electrode layer that are located on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; and a second passivation layer and a second electrode layer that are located on the second surface of the semiconductor substrate. A donor material film layer is provided between the first passivation layer and the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, and/or an acceptor material film layer is provided between the second passivation layer and the second surface of the semiconductor substrate.

Provided are a method for local structuring of a silicon layer, which method comprises a step of local modification of the etching resistance within said silicon layer and a subsequent step of removing unmodified regions of said silicon layer by etching and applications of this method for the production of solar cells.

A photodetector disclosed herein includes an N-doped waveguide structure defined in a semiconductor material, wherein the N-doped waveguide structure comprises a plurality of first fins. Each adjacent pair of the plurality of first fins is separated by a trench formed in the semiconductor material. The photodetector also includes a detector structure positioned on the N-doped waveguide structure, wherein a portion of the detector structure is positioned laterally between the plurality of first fins. The detector structure comprises a single crystal semiconductor material. The photodetector also includes a first diffusion region that extends from the bottom surface of the trench into the semiconductor material, wherein the first diffusion region comprises atoms of the single crystal semiconductor material of the detector structure.

A flexible, non-flat solar cell comprises a flexible substrate. A pn junction is on or in the flexible substrate. The solar cell has been flexed so as to have a non-flat geometry that results in an increased surface area of the flexed solar cell with respect to the surface area of a flat solar cell that is the same as the flexed solar cell except that the flat solar cell has a flat surface geometry that has the same projected area on a lateral plane as does the flexed solar cell.

A photovoltaic device and a method of making the photovoltaic device are disclosed. The photovoltaic device may include a semiconductor layer epitaxially grown using a compound semiconductor material, such as a group III-V semiconductor material, wherein a surface of the semiconductor layer is textured via one or more laser pulses of a laser. The photovoltaic device may also include a dielectric layer deposited over the textured surface of the semiconductor layer, and a back metal reflector provided on the dielectric layer. The textured surface extends a path of light traveling through the photovoltaic device to increase absorption of the light within the photovoltaic device.

The invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor component comprising a thin layer of crystalline silicon on a substrate, comprising the steps of: providing a silicon-rich aluminum substrate (S0), depositing a thin layer of amorphous silicon on the substrate (S1), and applying thermal annealing (S2) to the thin layer of amorphous silicon to obtain a thin layer of crystalline silicon on the substrate.

Disclosed herein are an apparatus for detecting radiation and a method of making it. The method may comprise forming a recess into a semiconductor substrate, wherein a portion of the semiconductor substrate extends into the recess and is surrounded by the recess; forming a semiconductor single crystal in the recess, the semiconductor single crystal having a different composition from the semiconductor substrate; forming a first doped semiconductor region in the semiconductor substrate; forming a second doped semiconductor region in the semiconductor substrate; wherein the first doped semiconductor region and the second doped semiconductor region form a p-n junction that separates the portion from the rest of the semiconductor substrate.

A method of manufacturing an electronic device, including the successive steps of: a) performing an ion implantation of indium or of aluminum into an upper portion of a first single-crystal gallium nitride layer, to make the upper portion of the first layer amorphous and to preserve the crystal structure of a lower portion of the first layer; and b) performing a solid phase recrystallization anneal of the upper portion of the first layer, resulting in transforming the upper portion of the first layer into a crystalline indium gallium nitride or aluminum gallium nitride layer.

A photovoltaic cell device and a manufacturing method of a template thereof are provided. The manufacturing method of the template of the photovoltaic cell device includes the steps of providing a substrate and a target disposed opposite to each other in a chamber, applying an unbalanced magnetic field, and generating a plasma in the chamber to form a sputtered layer on the substrate. The plasma extends to an area proximate to the substrate due to the unbalanced magnetic field to assist the crystallization of the sputtered layer, so that the sputtered layer has a single crystalline or a single crystalline-like structure.

The present invention describes a method for producing CdTe thin-film solar cells, in which special parameters of different processing steps and a special sequence of processing steps result in improved characteristics of the produced CdTe solar cells.