A technique, comprising: forming in situ on a support substrate: a first metal layer; a light-absorbing layer after the first metal layer; a conductor pattern after the light-absorbing layer; and a semiconductor layer after the conductor pattern; patterning the semiconductor layer using a resist mask to form a semiconductor pattern defining one or more semiconductor channels of one or more semiconductor devices; and patterning the light-absorbing layer using the resist mask and the conductor pattern, so as to selectively retain the light-absorbing layer in regions that are occupied by at least one of the resist mask and the conductor pattern.