As a cost effective alternative to lithography, there is provided a method of forming an electronic device comprising the steps of: depositing a first quantity of a first liquid medium comprising a dopant on a first portion of a planar surface and depositing a second quantity of the first liquid medium on a second portion of the surface, the first quantity spaced from the second quantity by a gap; heating the first quantity, the second quantity, and the surface, the heating configured to cause diffusion of at least some of the dopant from the first liquid medium into the surface; depositing a dielectric material on the surface in the gap; selectively removing the first quantity and the second quantity from the surface; depositing an electrical contact on each of the first portion and the second portion; and depositing a further electrical contact on the dielectric material.

Methods are provided for fabricating photovoltaic cell contacts, which include: providing a block copolymer layer above an electrical contact layer of the photovoltaic cell, the block copolymer layer being self-assembled by phase segregation to include multiple structures of a first polymer material surrounded, at least in part, by a second polymer material; selectively etching the block copolymer layer to remove the multiple structures, forming holes in the block copolymer layer; and using the holes in the block copolymer layer to facilitate providing electrical contacts between a light absorption layer of the photovoltaic cell and the electrical contact layer. For instance, the holes in the copolymer layer may be used in etching a passivation layer over the electrical contact layer to form nano-sized contact openings in the passivation layer to the contact layer. Once provided, the cell's light absorption material forms contacts extending through the contact openings in the passivation layer.

A three-dimensional thin-film semiconductor substrate with selective through-holes is provided. The substrate having an inverted pyramidal structure comprising selectively formed through-holes positioned between the front and back lateral surface planes of the semiconductor substrate to form a partially transparent three-dimensional thin-film semiconductor substrate.

A lateral Ge/Si APD constructed on a silicon-on-insulator wafer includes a silicon device layer having regions that are doped to provide a lateral electric field and an avalanche region. A region having a modest doping level is in contact with a germanium body. There are no metal contacts made to the germanium body. The electrical contacts to the germanium body are made by way of the doped regions in the silicon device layer.

A solar cell includes polysilicon P-type and N-type doped regions on a backside of a substrate, such as a silicon wafer. A trench structure separates the P-type doped region from the N-type doped region. Each of the P-type and N-type doped regions may be formed over a thin dielectric layer. The trench structure may include a textured surface for increased solar radiation collection. Among other advantages, the resulting structure increases efficiency by providing isolation between adjacent P-type and N-type doped regions, thereby preventing recombination in a space charge region where the doped regions would have touched.

Techniques for enhancing the absorption of photons in semiconductors with the use of microstructures are described. The microstructures, such as holes, effectively increase the 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. Their thickness dimensions allow them to be conveniently integrated on the same Si chip with CMOS, BiCMOS, and other electronics, with resulting packaging benefits and reduced capacitance and thus higher speeds.

Disclosed are devices for optical sensing and manufacturing method thereof. In one embodiment, a device for optical sensing includes a substrate, a photodetector and a reflector. The photodetector is disposed in the substrate. The reflector is disposed in the substrate and spaced apart from the photodetector, wherein the reflector has a reflective surface inclined relative to the photodetector that reflects light transmitted thereto to the photodetector.

A photodetecting device includes a semiconductor substrate, a plurality of avalanche photodiodes each including a light receiving region disposed at a first principal surface side of the semiconductor substrate, the avalanche photodiodes being arranged two-dimensionally at the semiconductor substrate, and a through-electrode electrically connected to a corresponding light receiving region. The through-electrode is provided in a through-hole penetrating through the semiconductor substrate in an area where the plurality of avalanche photodiodes are arranged two-dimensionally. At the first principal surface side of the semiconductor substrate, a groove surrounding the through-hole is formed between the through-hole and the light receiving region adjacent to the through-hole. A first distance between an edge of the groove and an edge of the through-hole surrounded by the groove is longer than a second distance between the edge of the groove and an edge of the light receiving region adjacent to the through-hole surrounded by the groove.

The disclosure relates to the technical field of solar cells, and provides a solar cell and a doped region structure thereof, a cell assembly, and a photovoltaic system. The doped region structure includes a first doped layer, a passivation layer, and a second doped layer that are disposed on a silicon substrate in sequence. The passivation layer is a porous structure having the first doped layer and/or the second doped layer inlaid in a hole region. The first doped layer and the second doped layer have a same doping polarity. By means of the doped region structure of the solar cell provided in the disclosure, the difficulty in production and the limitation on conversion efficiency as a result of precise requirements for the accuracy of a thickness of a conventional tunneling layer are resolved.

A photovoltaic device and method include forming a plurality of pillar structures in a substrate, forming a first electrode layer on the pillar structures and forming a continuous photovoltaic stack including an N-type layer, a P-type layer and an intrinsic layer on the first electrode. A second electrode layer is deposited over the photovoltaic stack such that gaps or fissures occur in the second electrode layer between the pillar structures. The second electrode layer is wet etched to open up the gaps or fissures and reduce the second electrode layer to form a three-dimensional electrode of substantially uniform thickness over the photovoltaic stack.