A reactive heat treatment apparatus is provided to treat a thin-film device. The reactive heat treatment apparatus includes a furnace pipe. The furnace pipe extends in a direction and has a first end and a second end. The furnace pipe further includes a high-temperature portion, a low-temperature portion, and a furnace door. The high-temperature portion is disposed close to the second end and configured to receive the thin-film device. The low-temperature portion is disposed close to the first end and provided with an airtight configuration. The furnace door is disposed close to the first end. An inner side wall of the low-temperature portion has a sunken portion. A height differential is formed between the sunken portion and an inner side wall of the high-temperature portion.

An imaging device that facilitates pooling processing. A pixel region includes a plurality of pooling modules and an output circuit, the pooling module includes a pooling circuit and a comparison module, the pooling circuit includes a plurality of pixels and an arithmetic circuit, and the comparison module includes a plurality of comparison circuits and a determination circuit. The pixel can obtain a first signal through photoelectric conversion, and can multiply the first signal by a given scaling factor to generate a second signal. The pooling circuit adds a plurality of second signals in the arithmetic circuit to generate a third signal, the comparison module compares a plurality of third signals and outputs the largest third signal to the determination circuit, and the determination circuit determines the largest third signal and binarizes it to generate a fourth signal. In the imaging device, the pooling module performs pooling processing in accordance with the number of pixels and outputs data obtained by the pooling processing.

Techniques for precisely controlling the composition of volatile components (such as sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tin (Sn)) of chalcogenide semiconductors in real-time—during production of the material are provided. In one aspect, a method for forming a chalcogenide semiconductor material includes providing a S source(s) and a Se source(s); heating the S source(s) to form a S-containing vapor; heating the Se source(s) to form a Se-containing vapor; passing a carrier gas first through the S-containing vapor and then through the Se-containing vapor, wherein the S-containing vapor and the Se-containing vapor are transported via the carrier gas to a sample; and contacting the S-containing vapor and the Se-containing vapor with the sample under conditions sufficient to form the chalcogenide semiconductor material. A multi-chamber processing apparatus is also provided.

A method for producing a layer system for thin-film solar cells is described, wherein a) an absorber layer is produced, and b) a buffer layer is produced on the absorber layer, wherein the buffer layer contains sodium indium sulfide according to the formula Na.sub.xIn.sub.y-x/3S with 0.063≦x≦0.625 and 0.681≦y≦1.50, and wherein the buffer layer is produced, without deposition of indium sulfide, based on at least one sodium thioindate compound.

A semiconductor device including pixels arranged in a matrix of n rows and m columns, in which the pixels in the m-th column are shielded from light, is provided.

A compositional range of fusion-formable, high strain point sodium free, silicate, aluminosilicate and boroaluminosilicate glasses are described herein. The glasses can be used as substrates for photovoltaic devices, for example, thin film photovoltaic devices such as CIGS photovoltaic devices. These glasses can be characterized as having strain points ≧540° C., thermal expansion coefficient of from 6.5 to 10.5 ppm/° C., as well as liquidus viscosities in excess of 50,000 poise. As such they are ideally suited for being formed into sheet by the fusion process.

A wide band gap semiconductor NAND based neutron detection system includes a semiconductor layer comprising a wide band gap material with a neutron absorber material in the wide band gap material, and the semiconductor layer is the only layer of the wide band gap semiconductor NAND based neutron detection system fabricated with the neutron absorber material.

A photovoltaic module is specified, comprising: a cylindrical light-transmissive tube enclosing an interior and having a main extension direction and a curved inner surface facing the interior, and a mechanically flexible photovoltaic component comprising a solar cell arrangement applied on a carrier film, wherein the photovoltaic component is arranged in the interior, the solar cell arrangement has a curvature, wherein the curvature follows the curved course of the inner surface of the tube at least in places and the solar cell arrangement at least partly covers the inner surface, wherein the covered inner surface forms a light passage surface of the photovoltaic module.

A method of making a semiconductor device includes forming a semiconductor material stack having a sodium at an atomic concentration greater than 1×10.sup.19/cm.sup.3, depositing a transparent conductive oxide layer over the semiconductor material stack, such that sodium atoms diffuse from the semiconductor material stack into the transparent conductive oxide layer, and contacting a physically exposed surface of the transparent conductive oxide layer with a fluid to remove sodium from the transparent conductive oxide layer.

A solar cell includes a support substrate, a back electrode layer on the support substrate, a light absorbing layer on the back electrode layer, a buffer layer on the light absorbing layer, a high resistance buffer layer on the buffer layer, and a front electrode layer on the high resistance buffer layer. An insulating part is located on a top surface of the light absorbing layer. A method of fabricating the solar cell includes forming the back electrode layer on the substrate, forming the light absorbing layer on the back electrode layer, forming the buffer layer on the light absorbing layer, oxidizing a top surface of the buffer layer, and forming the front electrode layer on the buffer layer.