Techniques are disclosed to enable an energy-collecting touchscreen unit having a thin, substantially transparent cover layer through which a viewing area within the touchscreen unit can be observed while protecting the touchscreen unit from physical damage. The touchscreen unit has a common base layer disposed beneath the cover layer, and it has at least one touch sensor and a photovoltaic surface. The touch sensor and the photovoltaic surface are affixed to opposite faces of the common base layer. The touchscreen unit also includes an electrical interconnection with both the photovoltaic surface and the touch sensor.

A sensor may be provided, including a substrate having a first semiconductor layer, a second semiconductor layer, and a buried insulator layer arranged between the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer. The sensor may further include a photodiode arranged in the first semiconductor layer; and a quenching resistive element electrically connected in series with the photodiode. The quenching resistive element is arranged in the second semiconductor layer, and the quenching resistive element is arranged over the photodiode but separated from the photodiode by the buried insulator layer.

One illustrative photodetector disclosed herein includes an N-doped waveguide structure defined in a semiconductor material, the N-doped waveguide structure comprising a plurality of first fins, and 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. In this example, the photodetector also includes at least one N-doped contact region positioned in the semiconductor material and a P-doped contact region positioned in the detector structure.

Techniques are disclosed to enable an energy-collecting touchscreen unit having a thin, substantially transparent cover layer through which a viewing area within the touchscreen unit can be observed while protecting the touchscreen unit from physical damage. The touchscreen unit has a common base layer disposed beneath the cover layer, and it has at least one touch sensor and a photovoltaic surface. The touch sensor and the photovoltaic surface are affixed to opposite faces of the common base layer. The touchscreen unit also includes an electrical interconnection with both the photovoltaic surface and the touch sensor.

There is described a cascade-type compact hybrid energy cell (CHEC) that is capable of individually and concurrently harvesting solar, strain and thermal energies. The cell comprises an n-p homojunction nanowire (NW)-based piezoelectric nanogenerator and a nanocrystalline/amorphous-Si:H single junction cell. Under optical illumination of 10 mW/cm.sup.2 and mechanical vibration of 3 m/s.sup.2 at 3 Hz frequency, the output current and voltage from a single 1.0 cm.sup.2-sized CHEC was found to be 280 A and 3.0 V, respectivelythis is are sufficient to drive low-power commercial electronics. Six such CHECs connected in series were found to generate enough electrical power to light emitting diodes or drive a wireless strain gauge sensor node.

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to graphene detectors integrated with optical waveguide structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes a plurality of non-planar fin structures composed of substrate material, and a non-planar sheet of graphene material extending entirely over each of the plurality of non-planar fin structures.

A method of manufacturing an imaging apparatus includes: preparing a substrate comprising a wafer and a silicon layer arranged on the wafer, the wafer including a first semiconductor region made of single crystal silicon with an oxygen concentration not less than 210.sup.16 atoms/cm.sup.3 and not greater than 410.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.3, the silicon layer including a second semiconductor region made of single crystal silicon with an oxygen concentration lower than the oxygen concentration in the first semiconductor region; annealing the substrate in an atmosphere containing oxygen and setting the oxygen concentration in the second semiconductor region within the range not less than 210.sup.16 atoms/cm.sup.3 and not greater than 410.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.3; and forming a photoelectric conversion element in the second semiconductor region after the annealing.

A method for forming a photovoltaic device includes providing a substrate. A layer is deposited to form one or more layers of a photovoltaic stack on the substrate. The depositing of the amorphous layer includes performing a high power flash deposition for depositing a first portion of the layer. A low power deposition is performed for depositing a second portion of the layer.

An electromagnetic radiation detection device comprises a matrix having a plurality of N rows divided into a plurality of M columns of cells, each cell comprising a plurality of diode segments responsive to electromagnetic radiation incident on said device. A scan driver provides a plurality of N scan line signals to respective rows of said matrix, each for enabling charge values from cells of a selected row of said matrix to be read. A reader reads a plurality of M variable charge value signals from respective columns of said matrix, each corresponding to a cell within a selected row of said matrix. Each diode segment is connected to a drive voltage sufficient to operate each diode segment in avalanche multiplication Geiger mode; and connected in series with an avalanche quenching resistor to said reader.

The invention concerns an optronic device (1), comprising: a glass substrate (2) having opposed and textured first and second surfaces (21, 22); an electrically conductive material (3) continuous and formed on the second surface (22) of the glass substrate; a photovoltaic sensor thin film (4) formed on the electrically conductive material (3); the texturing of the first surface (21) of the glass substrate is configured to have a weighted optical reflection in the visible spectrum of less than 3%; the texturing of the second surface (22) of the glass substrate is configured to diffuse the light transmitted from the substrate to the transparent electrode (3).