Solar devices and methods for producing solar devices are disclosed. In some examples, a solar device includes solar cells arranged in a shingled manner such that adjacent long edges of adjacent ones of the solar cells overlap. The adjacent long edges have a non-linear shape that has protruding portions. The solar device includes contact pads arranged in the protruding portions of the adjacent long edges such that the contact pads of the adjacent ones of the solar cells are electrically connected.

A back contact structure of a solar cell, includes: a silicon substrate, the silicon substrate including a back surface including a plurality of recesses disposed at intervals; a plurality of first conductive regions and a plurality of second conductive regions disposed alternately in the plurality of recesses, where each first conductive region includes a first dielectric layer and a first doped region which are disposed successively in the plurality of recesses, and each second conductive region includes a second doped region; a second dielectric layer disposed between the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions; and a conductive layer disposed on the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions.

A semiconductor structure includes a group IV substrate and a patterned group III-V device over the group IV substrate. A blanket dielectric layer is situated over the patterned group III-V device. Contact holes in the blanket dielectric layer are situated over the patterned group III-V device. A liner stack having at least one metal liner is situated in each contact hole. Filler metals are situated over each liner stack and fill the contact holes. The patterned group III-V device can be optically and/or electrically connected to group IV devices in the group IV substrate.

In one example, a sensor comprises a photovoltaic device. The photovoltaic device comprises a core having a shape that is at least partially spherical, an absorber disposed over the core, and a transparent conductor disposed over the absorber. Other examples and related methods are also disclosed herein.

A first n-type contact layer, a second n-type contact layer, a multiplication layer, an electric field control layer, a light absorbing layer, and a p-type contact layer are layered in this order on a substrate. The second n-type contact layer is formed between the first n-type contact layer and the light absorbing layer, is made to have an area smaller than that of the light absorbing layer in a plan view, and is disposed inside the light absorbing layer in a plan view.

A solid-state image sensor including a photoelectric conversion region partitioned by trenches, a first semiconductor region surrounding the photoelectric conversion region, a first contact in contact with the first semiconductor region at a bottom portion of the trench, a first electrode in contact with the first contact in the first trench, a second semiconductor region in contact with the first semiconductor region having the same conductive type as the first semiconductor region, a third semiconductor region in contact with the second semiconductor region, between the second semiconductor region and a first surface, and having a second conductive type, a second contact on the first surface in contact with the third semiconductor region, and a second electrode in contact with the second contact, and a second surface at which the first contact and the first electrode are in contact with each other is inclined with respect to the first surface.

A back contact structure of a solar cell, includes: a silicon substrate, the silicon substrate including a back surface including a plurality of recesses disposed at intervals; a plurality of first conductive regions and a plurality of second conductive regions disposed alternately in the plurality of recesses, where each first conductive region includes a first dielectric layer and a first doped region which are disposed successively in the plurality of recesses, and each second conductive region includes a second doped region; a second dielectric layer disposed between the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions; and a conductive layer disposed on the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions.

A back contact structure includes: a silicon substrate including a back surface including a plurality of recesses disposed at intervals; a plurality of first conductive regions and a plurality of second conductive regions disposed alternately on the back surface of the silicon substrate; a second dielectric layer disposed between the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions; and a conductive layer disposed on the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions. One of the plurality of first conductive regions and the plurality of second conductive regions is disposed inside the plurality of recesses, respectively, and the other one is disposed outside the plurality of recesses; each first conductive region includes a first dielectric layer and a first doped region which are disposed successively, and each second conductive region includes a second doped region.

A back contact structure includes: a silicon substrate including a back surface including a plurality of recesses disposed at intervals; a first dielectric layer disposed on the back surface of the silicon substrate; a plurality of first doped regions disposed on the first dielectric layer and disposed inside the plurality of recesses; a plurality of second doped regions disposed on the first dielectric layer and disposed outside the plurality of recesses; a second dielectric layer disposed between the first doped regions and the second doped regions; and a conductive layer disposed on the first plurality of doped regions and the plurality of second doped regions.

A multijunction solar cell including interconnected first and second discrete semiconductor regions disposed adjacent and parallel to each other including first top solar subcell, second (and possibly third) lattice matched middle solar subcells; a graded interlayer adjacent to the last middle solar subcell; and a bottom solar subcell adjacent to said graded interlayer being lattice mismatched with respect to the last middle solar subcell; wherein an opening is provided from the bottom side of the semiconductor body to one or more of the solar subcells so as to allow a discrete electrical connector to be made extending in free space and to electrically connect contact pads on one or more of the solar subcells.