The invention relates to a radiation detector for converting electromagnetic radiation (15) into electric charge carriers. The invention also relates to an X-ray examination apparatus provided with such a radiation detector, and to a method of manufacturing a radiation detector. In order to achieve a small building height of the radiation detector while nevertheless satisfying the same requirements as regards the resetting of the converter arrangement (16, 18) by means of an illumination device (6), it is proposed to provide a supporting layer (8) underneath a glass plate (2a) with a photosensor arrangement (2b), which supporting layer on the one hand provides uniform distribution of the light incident from below and on the other hand imparts the necessary stability to the radiation detector. In a further embodiment it is proposed to provide a scatter foil (14) instead of the supporting layer (8), which scatter foil provided the homogeneous light distribution while the supporting function is taken over by the illumination device.