JPS6311981A - Method for cleaning photoconductive body manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the reproducibility of the electric characteristic of each photoconductive body, by heating a photoconductive body manufacturing device at about 100 deg.C for about one hour or more after the device is washed with water or a solvent. CONSTITUTION:When a photoconductive body manufacturing device is heated at about 100 deg.C for about one hour or more after the device is washed with water or a solvent, the water or solvent sticking to the surface of the device is evaporated and removed from the surface of the device. Therefore, no water or solvent is mixed into a photoconductive layer when the photoconductive layer is formed on a base body with the device is stabilized and, as a result, the reproducibility of the photoconductive body is improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus used as a copying machine, a photoprinter, a fluorophore, and the like.

<Summary of the Invention> In summary, the method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing device of the present invention cleans water remaining on the surface of the photoconductor manufacturing device after cleaning the photoconductor manufacturing device using water or a solvent. Alternatively, by heating the solvent, the solvent is completely removed from the surface of the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus to prevent defects from occurring in the photoconductor.

<Prior Art and Its Disadvantages> Photoconductors made of amorphous silicon have excellent characteristics such as high photosensitivity, durability, and non-polluting properties, and are expected to be put into practical use as excellent photoconductive materials. However, when such an amorphous silicon photoconductor is used as a photoreceptor in a copier or the like to form an image, the phenomenon of white spots especially in halftone areas becomes noticeable and the image quality deteriorates. has become a big problem. The reason for this white spot phenomenon is that when an amorphous silicon film is formed on a foreign substance attached to the substrate surface, the amorphous silicon film in this part grows abnormally and becomes a defect in this part.

Therefore, in order to prevent foreign matter from adhering to the surface of the substrate, it is necessary to remove foreign matter not only from the surface of the substrate but also from inside the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus.

For this reason, the inside of the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus has been cleaned using pure water or a solvent every time a substrate is mounted in the reaction chamber of the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus.

However, in conventional cleaning methods, the photoconductor manufacturing equipment was simply cleaned with pure water or a solvent and then air-dried, resulting in the pure water or solvent remaining inside the photoconductor manufacturing equipment. When an amorphous silicon photoconductor is formed, it is incorporated into the photoconductor as an impurity, and has a considerable influence on the electrical characteristics of the photoconductor as a photoreceptor. The amount of pure water or solvent remaining on the surface of the photoconductive layer manufacturing device varies from time to time, resulting in electrical characteristics varying from photoconductor to photoconductor, which has the disadvantage of reducing photoconductor reproducibility. .

<Objective of the Invention> The object of the present invention is to prevent contamination of the photoconductor by reliably removing water or solvent used for cleaning photoconductor manufacturing equipment, and to improve the electrical characteristics of each photoconductor. An object of the present invention is to provide a cleaning method for a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus that improves reproducibility.

<Configuration and Effects of the Invention> The cleaning method for a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is a method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus that forms a photoconductor on the surface of a substrate mounted in a reaction chamber by decomposing a raw material gas in the reaction chamber. , in a method of cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing device using water or a solvent, heating the photoconductor manufacturing device at a temperature of approximately 100° C. or higher for approximately 1 hour or more after cleaning with water or a solvent; It is characterized by

With the above configuration, the photoconductor manufacturing equipment that has been cleaned using water or solvent is heated at a temperature of approximately 10°C or higher for approximately 1 hour or more, thereby removing the water or solvent attached to the surface. It evaporates and is removed from the surface of the photoconductor manufacturing device.

As described above, according to the present invention, water or solvent is not mixed into the photoconductive layer even when forming the photoconductive layer on the surface of the substrate, and the electrical characteristics of the photoconductor are stabilized. The reproducibility of the photoconductor is improved.

<Example> FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus for explaining a cleaning method for a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus according to an example of the present invention.

This manufacturing device has a high frequency power source 11 in a sealed reaction chamber 2.
An electrode 4.4 is provided to which the voltage is applied. The inside of this reaction chamber 2 is supplied with a vacuum pump 8 by operating an exhaust valve 7.
is evacuated by.

Furthermore, by operating the auxiliary valve 9, gas that has been adjusted eight times by the gas controller 10 is introduced into the reaction chamber 2. A drum is installed between the electrodes 4.4. This drum 1 is placed on a support 3 and rotated by a motor 6. In this embodiment, a cylindrical aluminum drum is used as the base 1.

Next, a method for cleaning the above-mentioned manufacturing apparatus, which is an embodiment of the present invention, will be explained. Inner wall of reaction chamber 2, electrodes 4, 4,
The support material 3 and the like are cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaning device using pure water and dried. Thereafter, heat treatment was performed for 1 hour at a temperature of 100° C. in an atmosphere where the pressure of this manufacturing apparatus was reduced to 1 Q Torr. The pressure and temperature at this time vary depending on the type of pure water or solvent used. Good results were obtained by applying a temperature of 100° C. or higher at an average temperature of 1 Q Torr or lower.

A photoconductor is produced using the photoconductor production apparatus that has been cleaned in this manner. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the conditions for producing this photoreceptor. A cylindrical aluminum base 1 is attached to a support 3 of the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. The surface of this substrate 1 has been sufficiently cleaned in a fluorocarbon ultrasonic cleaning layer and a steam cleaning layer. When the attachment force q8 of the substrate 1 is completed, the exhaust valve 7 is opened and the reaction chamber 2 is evacuated by the vacuum pump 8. At this time, the surface temperature of the substrate 1 is raised to 280° C. using a heater provided on the support 3, and this temperature is maintained thereafter. Next, the auxiliary valve 9 is opened and the raw material mixed gas is introduced into the reaction chamber 2 by the gas controller IO. The raw material mixed gas is SiH4, H2
At least one of the base gases B, H, NO, CH, or H2 is adjusted to a predetermined mixing ratio depending on the purpose. At this time, the exhaust valve 7 is adjusted so that the pressure inside the reaction chamber 2 is maintained at 0.5 Torr. Then, the raw material mixed gas reacts on the surface of the substrate 1 due to glow discharge, and an amorphous silicon or silicon compound film is formed. The above steps from evacuation to glow discharge are repeated to form first to third layers of amorphous silicon or silicon compound films on the surface of the substrate 1. The photoreceptor thus produced is taken out from the reaction chamber 2, and the inside of the reaction chamber 2 is cleaned again using the above-described cleaning method to produce a photoreceptor.

In this way, photoreceptors (A-E) were created under the same conditions,
This corona discharge causes the surface of each photoreceptor to reach 0.3 μm.
An electrostatic charge of c/cat was applied and the potential on the surface of the photoreceptor was measured. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the results. The horizontal axis represents the numbers of the five photoreceptors, and the vertical axis represents the charging potential.

FIG. 4 shows the photoreceptor (F-J) in a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus using a conventional cleaning method, that is, cleaning the photoconductor manufacturing apparatus with water or a solvent and drying it only by natural drying.
These are the results of measuring the charging potential in the same manner as above. As is clear from the figure, there is less variation in the charged potential of the photoconductor produced using the photoconductor manufacturing equipment cleaned using the cleaning method of this example, compared to the photoconductor produced using the photoconductor manufacturing equipment cleaned using the conventional method. It was recognized that reproducibility had improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the change in charging potential of a photoreceptor produced using a manufacturing apparatus that implements the cleaning method of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the manufacturing conditions of the photoreceptor described above, and Fig. 3 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of the manufacturing apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the transition of the charged potential of a photoreceptor produced using the manufacturing apparatus cleaned by a conventional cleaning method.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing device, which uses water or a solvent to clean a photoconductor manufacturing device that forms a photoconductor on the surface of a substrate mounted in the reaction chamber by decomposing a raw material gas in the reaction chamber. A method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing device, comprising: heating the photoconductor manufacturing device at a temperature of approximately 100° C. or higher for approximately 1 hour or more after cleaning with water or a solvent. (2) The atmosphere of the photoconductor manufacturing equipment after the cleaning is approximately 10
2. The method for cleaning a photoconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein heating is performed at a temperature of 100° C. or higher for 1 hour or more at a temperature of 100° C. or lower.