A photovoltaic device includes: a silicon substrate having a front surface having a texture; and an amorphous silicon layer having an uneven surface corresponding to the texture, wherein the amorphous silicon layer is amorphous in peak portions and slope portions extending between the peak portions and valley portions of the uneven surface, and has crystalline regions which grow, in a pillar manner, approximately perpendicularly from a substrate surface of the silicon substrate in the valley portions, the crystalline regions being discretely present along upper ends of the valley portions, the upper ends being opposite lower ends of the valley portions, the lower ends being in contact with the silicon substrate, wherein coverage of the crystalline regions in the valley portions is higher than coverage of amorphous regions in the valley portions.

A solar cell includes: a semiconductor substrate formed of n-type crystalline silicon; a first stack formed of amorphous silicon in a first region on a first principle surface of the semiconductor substrate; a second stack formed of amorphous silicon in a second region different from the first region on the first principle surface; and a third stack formed of amorphous silicon on a second principle surface of the semiconductor substrate opposite from the first principle surface. The second stack has an oxygen concentration that is higher than that of the first stack.

One or more systems and/or methods are disclosed for building a relief print generator with no bezel. An electrode layer having more than one electrode can be used in an electrode-based, electro-luminescence component of the relief print generator. The respective electrodes may be connected to power sources with different voltage phases. An electrical circuit can be created between a biometric object and more than one electrode in the electrode layer when the biometric object contacts a surface of the generator. The electro-luminescent component can be activated by electrical charge and emit light indicative of a relief print of the biometric object. A contact electrode outside the electrode layer may not be used, which may allow for the removal of a bezel from an example device.

A solar cell includes: an n-type first amorphous silicon layer provided on a first main surface of a crystalline silicon substrate; an amorphous silicon oxide layer provided on a first main surface of the first amorphous silicon layer; and an n-type fine crystal silicon layer provided on a first main surface of the amorphous silicon oxide layer. An oxygen atom concentration in the first amorphous silicon layer, the amorphous silicon oxide layer, and the fine crystal silicon layer has a maximum value in the amorphous silicon oxide layer with a thickness direction.

The present invention discloses a nanoparticle control and detection system and operating method thereof. The present invention controls and detects the nanoparticles in the same device. The device comprises a first transparent electrode, a photoconductive layer, a spacer which is deposed on the edge of the photoconductive layer and a second transparent electrode. The aforementioned device controls and detects the nanoparticles by applying AC/DC bias and AC/DC light source to the transparent electrode.

A method and apparatus for reducing as-deposited and metastable defects relative to amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin films, its alloys and devices fabricated therefrom that include heating an earth shield positioned around a cathode in a parallel plate plasma chemical vapor deposition chamber to control a temperature of a showerhead in the deposition chamber in the range of 350° C. to 600° C. An anode in the deposition chamber is cooled to maintain a temperature in the range of 50° C. to 450° C. at the substrate that is positioned at the anode. In the apparatus, a heater is embedded within the earth shield and a cooling system is embedded within the anode.

The present disclosure relates to large cell sheets, solar cells, shingled solar modules, and manufacturing method thereof. A top surface of a boundary portion of units of the large cell sheet is divided into a cutting area, top surface bonding areas and top surface electrically-conductive contact areas. The cutting area is configured in a way that the large cell sheet can be cut along the cutting area; the top surface bonding areas and the top surface electrically-conductive contact areas are provided alternately, the cutting area and the top surface electrically-conductive contact areas are formed as an overlapping edge of the solar cell, and after the splitting of the large cell sheet, the top surface electrically-conductive contact areas can directly contact the bottom surface of another solar cell to achieve electrically-conductive connection. The large cell sheet according to the present disclosure can be split conveniently, and the individual solar cells are provided with dedicated bonding areas and electrically-conductive contact areas. Such an arrangement can optimize the production process and use performance of the solar cells.

Methods, apparatus and systems are described that relate to uncooled long-wave infrared (LWIR) photodetectors capable of operating at room temperature and having a simple structure that can be manufactured at low cost. One example LWIR photodetector includes a layer of amorphous silicon (a-Si) disposed on a silicon substrate and a layer of amorphous germanium (a-Ge) disposed on the a-Si layer, wherein the a-Ge layer is operable to absorb infrared light and provide photoconductive gain, and the a-Si layer is operable to produce carrier multiplication via cycling excitation process.

A visibly transparent planar structure using a CPA scheme to boost the absorption of a multi-layer thin-film configuration, requiring no surface patterning, to overcome the intrinsic absorption limitation of the absorbing material. This is achieved in a multi-layer absorbing Fabry-Perot (FP) cavity, namely a thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell. Omni-resonance is achieved across a bandwidth of 80 nm in the near-infrared (NIR), thus increasing the effective absorption of the material, without modifying the material itself, enhancing it beyond its intrinsic absorption over a considerable spectral range. The apparatus achieved an increased external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 90% of the photocurrent generated in the 80 nm NIR region from 660 to 740 nm as compared to a bare solar cell. over the spectral range of interest.

An elevated photosensor for image sensors and methods of forming the photosensor. The photosensor may have light sensors having indentation features including, but not limited to, v-shaped, u-shaped, or other shaped features. Light sensors having such an indentation feature can redirect incident light that is not absorbed by one portion of the photosensor to another portion of the photosensor for additional absorption. In addition, the elevated photosensors reduce the size of the pixel cells while reducing leakage, image lag, and barrier problems.