A high-voltage switch is adapted for use as a medium-voltage direct current circuit breaker, which provides a low-cost, small-footprint device to mitigate system faults. In one example, a method for operating a wideb and optical device includes illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with a light within a first range of wavelengths and a first average intensity, allowing a current to propagate therethrough without substantial absorption of the current, illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with light within the first range of wavelengths and a second average intensity that is lower than the first average intensity to allow a sustained current flow though the wide bandgap optical device, and illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with light within a second range of wavelengths to stop or substantially restrict propagation of the current through the wide gap material.

A tandem photovoltaic device includes: an upper cell unit, a lower cell unit and a tunnel junction positioned between the upper cell unit and the lower cell unit; the tunnel junction includes an upper transport layer, a lower transport layer, and an intermediate layer positioned between the upper transport layer and the lower transport layer, the intermediate layer is an ordered defect layer, or, the intermediate layer is a continuous thin layer, or, the intermediate layer includes a first layer in contact with the lower transport layer and a second layer in contact with the upper transport layer; a doping concentration of the first layer is 10-10,000 times of a doping concentration of the lower transport layer, and the doping concentration of the first layer is less than 10.sup.21cm.sup.−3; a doping concentration of the second layer is 10-10,000 times of a doping concentration of the upper transport layer.

An integrated optical sensor includes a photon-detection module of a single-photon avalanche photodiode type. The detection module includes a semiconductive active zone in a substrate. The semiconductive active zone includes a region that contains germanium with a percentage between 3% and 10%. This percentage range is advantageous because it makes it possible to obtain a material firstly containing germanium (which in particular increases the efficiency of the sensor in the infrared or near infrared domain) and secondly having no or very few dislocations (which facilitates the implementation of a functional sensor in integrated form).

A solar cell manufacturing method including: forming, on one surface of a first conductivity-type semiconductor substrate, a first doped layer in which second conductivity-type impurities are diffused in a first concentration, and a second doped layer in which the second conductivity-type impurities are diffused in a second concentration lower than the first concentration, the second doped layer has surface roughness different from the first doped layer; and forming a metal electrode on the first doped layer to be electrically connected to the first doped layer, wherein a position of the first doped layer is detected based on a difference in light reflectance between the first and second doped layers, which results from a difference in surface roughness between the first and second doped layers, and then the metal electrode is formed in alignment with a detected position of the first doped layer.

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to photodiodes and/or PIN diode structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes: at least one fin including substrate material, the at least one fin including sidewalls and a top surface; a trench on opposing sides of the at least one fin; a first semiconductor material lining the sidewalls and the top surface of the at least one fin, and a bottom surface of the trench; a photosensitive semiconductor material on the first semiconductor material and at least partially filling the trench; and a third semiconductor material on the photosensitive semiconductor material.

Germanium (Ge)-Silicon (Si) structures, optoelectronic devices and method for forming same. A structure comprises a Si substrate, a Ge seed layer and a Ge epitaxial layer separated by respective interfaces that share a common plane normal, wherein the Si substrate and the Ge seed layer have a same first doping type with a first doping level, and a locally doped region formed in the Si layer adjacent to the Ge seed layer and having a second doping type with a second doping level, wherein the locally doped region is designed to reduce leakage currents between the Si substrate and the Ge epitaxial layer when an electrical bias is applied to the structure.

The present disclosure relates to semiconductor structures and, more particularly, to photodiodes and/or PIN diode structures and methods of manufacture. The structure includes: at least one fin including substrate material, the at least one fin including sidewalls and a top surface; a trench on opposing sides of the at least one fin; a first semiconductor material lining the sidewalls and the top surface of the at least one fin, and a bottom surface of the trench; a photosensitive semiconductor material on the first semiconductor material and at least partially filling the trench; and a third semiconductor material on the photosensitive semiconductor material.

A stacked (or vertically arranged) photodetector having at least one contact region on a germanium sensing region. Including the at least one contact on the germanium sensing region reduces the amount of surface area of the germanium sensing region that is interfaced with a substrate (e.g., a silicon substrate) in which the germanium sensing region is included. This reduces the amount of lattice mismatch reduces the amount of misfit defects for the germanium sensing region, which reduces the dark current for the photodetector. The reduced amount of dark current may increase the photosensitivity of the photodetector, may increase low-light performance of the photodetector, and/or may decrease noise and other defects in images and/or light captured by the photodetector, among other examples.

A high-voltage switch is adapted for use as a medium-voltage direct current circuit breaker, which provides a low-cost, small-footprint device to mitigate system faults. In one example, a method for operating a wideband optical device includes illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with a light within a first range of wavelengths and a first average intensity, allowing a current to propagate therethrough without substantial absorption of the current, illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with light within the first range of wavelengths and a second average intensity that is lower than the first average intensity to allow a sustained current flow though the wide bandgap optical device, and illuminating the wide bandgap optical device with light within a second range of wavelengths to stop or substantially restrict propagation of the current through the wide gap material.

PV layer sequences and corresponding production methods which can reliably provide a PV function with a long service life despite very low production costs. This is achieved by a reactive conditioning process of inorganic particles as part of a room-temperature printing method; the reactive surface conditioning process adjusts the PV activity in a precise manner, provides a kinetically controlled reaction product, and can ensure the desired PV activity even when using technically pure starting materials with 97% purity. In concrete embodiments, particles are printed in composite so as to form sub-sections on a support. Each sub-section has a reductively treated section and an oxidatively treated section, and the sections have PV activity with opposite signs. The sections can be cascaded in rows via upper-face contacts, and a precise light-dependent potential sum can be tapped via a PV measuring group.