A method of fabricating a solar cell assembly comprising a plurality of solar cells mounted on a flexible support, the support comprising a conductive layer on the top surface thereof divided into two electrically isolated portions—a first conductive portion and a second conductive portion. Each solar cell comprises a front surface, a rear surface, and a first contact on the rear surface and a second contact on the front surface. Each one of the plurality of solar cells is placed on the first conductive portion with the first contact electrically connected to the first conductive portion so that the solar cells are connected through the first conductive portion. A second contact of each solar cell is then connected to the second conductive portion by an interconnect. The two conductive portions serve as bus bars representing contacts of two different polarities of the solar cell assembly.

A photoconductive transducer intended to generate or detect waves in the terahertz frequency domain or in the picosecond pulse domain is provided. The transducer comprises a three-dimensional structure that includes, in this order, a first planar electrode, an array of nano-columns embedded in a layer of resist and a second planar electrode parallel to the first planar electrode. The design of the transducer increases the optical-to-terahertz conversion efficiency by means of photonic and plasmonic resonances and by means of high and homogeneous electric fields. The height of the nano-columns as well as the thickness of the resist range between 100 nanometres and 400 nanometres. The width of the nano-columns is between 100 nanometres and 400 nanometres, the distance between two adjacent nano-columns is between 300 nanometres and 500 nanometres, the nano-columns are made of a III-V semiconductor. The second electrode is transparent, so as to allow the transmission of a laser source towards the photo-absorbing nano-columns.

A non-diffusion type photodiode is described and has: a substrate, a buffer layer, a light absorption layer, an intermediate layer, and a multiplication/window layer. The buffer layer is disposed on the substrate. The light absorption layer is disposed on the buffer layer. The intermediate layer is disposed on the light absorption layer and has a first boundary, wherein the intermediate layer is an I-type semiconductor layer or a graded refractive index layer. The multiplication/window layer is disposed on the intermediate layer and has a second boundary, wherein in a top view, the first boundary surrounds the second boundary, and a distance between the first boundary and the second boundary is greater than or equal to 1 micrometer. The non-diffusion type photodiode can reduce generation of dark current.

A solar cell device includes a supporting substrate, and an epitaxial active structure that is disposed on the supporting substrate. The epitaxial active structure has a bottom surface adjacent to the supporting substrate and a top surface opposite to the bottom surface, and is formed with an isolation section that extends from the top surface to the bottom surface. A method for producing the solar cell device is also disclosed.

Techniques for enhancing the absorption of photons in semiconductors with the use of microstructures are described. The microstructures, such as pillars and/or holes, effectively increase the effective absorption length resulting in a greater absorption of the photons. Using microstructures for absorption enhancement for silicon photodiodes and silicon avalanche photodiodes can result in bandwidths in excess of 10 Gb/s at photons with wavelengths of 850 nm, and with quantum efficiencies of approximately 90% or more.

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.

Techniques for realizing compound semiconductor (CS) optoelectronic devices on silicon (Si) substrates for vehicle applications are disclosed. The integration platform is based on heteroepitaxy of CS materials and device structures on Si by direct heteroepitaxy on planar Si substrates or by selective area heteroepitaxy on dielectric patterned Si substrates. Following deposition of the CS device structures, device fabrication steps can be carried out using Si complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques to enable large-volume manufacturing. The integration platform can enable manufacturing of optoelectronic devices including photodetector arrays for image sensors and vertical cavity surface emitting laser arrays. Such devices can be used in various applications including light detection and ranging (LIDAR) systems for vehicle apparatuses such as automobiles, boats, airplanes, and drones, and for other perception applications such as industrial vision, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

The present disclosure relates to a composition that includes a III-V planar substrate having a surface aligned with and parallel to a reference plane, where the surface includes a plurality of terraces, each terrace includes a first surface positioned between a first boundary and a second boundary, each boundary is substantially parallel to the other boundaries and positioned substantially parallel to the reference plane, and each terrace is separated from an adjacent terrace by a second surface positioned between the second boundary of the terrace and the first boundary of the adjacent terrace.

A reflector including a substrate and a plurality of alternating layers of two materials having different indices of refraction disposed on the substrate, wherein the reflector exhibits a central peak in reflectance vs wavelength and the reflectance of the high-energy side-lobes is increased in intensity and the reflectance of the low-energy side-lobes is reduced in intensity and method for making the reflector is disclosed.

The present disclosure provides an integrated infrared circular polarization detector with a high extinction ratio and a design method thereof. The detector structurally includes a metal reflective layer, a bottom electrode layer, a quantum well layer, a top electrode layer, and a two-dimensional chiral metamaterial layer. Under circularly polarized light with the selected handedness, surface plasmon polariton waves are generated at the interface between the two-dimensional chiral metamaterial layer and the semiconductor, and has a main electric field component aligned with the absorption direction of the quantum wells, thereby enhancing the absorption of the quantum wells. Under circularly polarized light with the opposite handedness, since most of the optical power is reflected, surface plasmon polariton waves cannot be effectively excited, and the absorption of the quantum wells is extremely low, thus realizing the capability of infrared circular polarization detection with a high extinction ratio.