JPS6318080A - Production of photoconductor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce a photoconductor nearly free from surface defects by repeatedly carrying out the introduction of gaseous N2 or an inert gas contg. little dust into a reaction chamber and the exhaust of the gas from the chamber several times, introducing gaseous starting material and carrying out plasma chemical vapor growth. CONSTITUTION:Gaseous starting material in a gas cylinder 12 is fed into a reaction chamber 2 through a gas introducing pipe 10 after the composition is regulated in a control box 11. The chamber 2 is then evacuated to a prescribed pressure with an evacuator 4 through the exhaust port 3. High frequency voltage is applied between the side wall 6 of the chamber 2 and a support 9 rotated by a driving device 8 from a high frequency power source 7 to generate plasma and a photoconductive layer is formed on an Al substrate 1 on the support 9 by plasma chemical vapor growth. When the photoconductor is produced, the introduction of gaseous N2 or an inert gas contg. little dust into the chamber 2 and the exhaust of the gas from the chamber 2 are repeated several times to well remove dust from the chamber 2 before the gaseous starting material is introduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical Field] This invention relates to the production of a photoconductor in which a photoconductor layer is formed on the surface of a substrate by reacting a source gas on the surface of the substrate using a plasma chemical vapor deposition apparatus. Regarding the method.

<Background of the Invention> In recent years, high light sensitivity and high durability have been used as photosensitive materials for electrophotographic devices, document reading devices, etc.

Photoconductors made of amorphous silicon are expected to be put into practical use due to their advantages such as being non-polluting. As a manufacturing method for photoconductors made of amorphous silicon, a plasma chemical vapor deposition apparatus (= plasma chemical vapor deposition apparatus) is used.
There is a method of forming a photoconductor layer on the surface of a substrate using a vapor deposition (hereinafter referred to as a plasma CVD apparatus). Figure 3 shows the plasma CVD process used to form photoconductors as photosensitive drums used in copying machines, etc.
1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an apparatus. To briefly explain the configuration of this device and the method for manufacturing the photoconductor layer, the reaction chamber 2
is airtight and is evacuated from an exhaust port 3 by a vacuum device 4. A lid 5 is provided above the reaction chamber 2. First, the lid 5 is opened and the base 1 made of aluminum or the like is mounted on the support 9. The base body 1 and the support body 9 are rotated by a drive device 8 . Next, the inside of the reaction chamber 2 is evacuated from the exhaust port 3 by the vacuum device 4 .

When the evacuation is completed, raw material gas is introduced from a plurality of gas introduction vibes 10 arranged around the support body 9. This raw material gas is transferred to the gas cylinder 1 by the control box 1).
The two gases are adjusted to a predetermined mixing ratio. When the atmosphere in the reaction chamber 2 has been adjusted in this way, a high-frequency power source 7 is connected between the electrode 6, which also serves as the side wall of the reaction chamber 2, and the support 9, which constitutes the other electrode by being grounded. A high frequency voltage is applied. As a result, the raw material gas in the reaction chamber 2 reacts to form a photoconductor layer on the surface of the substrate 1.

A photoreceptor drum with a photoconductor layer made of aluminum formed thereon can be manufactured in the manner described above, but when an image is formed using this photoreceptor drum, the phenomenon of white areas where toner does not adhere to the image occurs. This may occur. Particularly in half-tone images, this phenomenon of white spots becomes noticeable and the image quality is significantly degraded. This blank area is caused by the phenomenon,
As a result of studies and experiments, it was found that foreign matter adheres to the surface of the substrate 1 during the manufacture of the photoreceptor drum, and when a photoconductor layer is formed on this foreign matter, amorphous silicon grows abnormally and forms a convex, 2-shaped defective part. It turned out that it was for a reason. When the diameter of this convex defect exceeds 30 μm, white spots often occur, and the image quality may be significantly degraded.

Therefore, in order to solve these problems, the surface of the substrate 1 and the inside of the reaction chamber 2 have been cleaned with pure water, a solvent, etc. using a known method. However, dust adhering to the corners of the reaction chamber 2 may remain even after cleaning, and this dust may become suspended in the atmosphere of the reaction chamber due to reduced pressure.
Dust in the atmosphere could not be removed sufficiently.

<Objective of the Invention> In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention aims to reduce the amount of dust in the atmosphere within the reaction chamber 2 and reduce the number of defective portions on the surface of the photoconductor.

<Structure of the Invention> The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a photoconductor in which a photoconductor layer is formed on a substrate surface using a plasma CVD apparatus, in which a low-dust N2 gas or a non-conductive gas is supplied to a reaction chamber of the plasma CVD apparatus. The method is characterized in that after the active gas is introduced and exhausted several times, the raw material gas is introduced into the reaction chamber.

In this invention, low dust N is added to the evacuated reaction chamber.
By introducing two gases or an inert gas, the concentration of dust suspended in the reaction chamber is reduced. After this, when the reaction chamber is evacuated and low-dust N2 gas or inert gas is introduced again, the residual gas that remained after the exhaust is mixed with the low-dust N2 gas or inert gas, resulting in the gas from the previous introduction. The dust concentration is further reduced compared to the amount.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, the dust concentration in the reaction chamber decreases each time low-dust N2 gas or inert gas is introduced or exhausted, and the dust in the reaction chamber can be sufficiently removed. Thereby, it is possible to prevent dust (foreign matter) from adhering to the surface of the substrate, and it is possible to prevent the occurrence of convex defective portions.

<Example> A method of manufacturing a photosensitive drum for a copying machine using the plasma CVD apparatus shown in FIG. 3 will be described.

First, the inside of the reaction chamber 2 is washed with pure water or a solvent and dried. Next, the interior of the reaction chamber 2 is brought into a vacuum state of about IX10-' to IX10-6 Torr by the vacuum device 4, and then N2 is supplied from the control box 1).
A gas or an inert gas such as Ar is introduced to bring the atmosphere to atmospheric pressure. At this time, the gas introduction pipe 10 is 0. 5
Almost impermeable to dust of μm or larger, i.e. class 1
The gas was made to have low dust by providing a filter that allows gas of 0.00 or less to pass through. Immediately after the pressure was set to atmospheric pressure, the amount of dust in the reaction chamber 2 was measured using a dust counter.

Thereafter, the inside of the reaction chamber 2 was again evacuated and gas introduced in the same manner as in the above-mentioned process, and the pressure was brought to atmospheric pressure, and the amount of dust was measured in the same manner as above.

The results of repeating this process four times and examining the change in the amount of dust in the reaction chamber 2 are shown in Figure 1 (Al).
The horizontal axis represents the number of times that the reaction chamber 2 was evacuated and then a low-dust N2 gas or an inert gas such as Ar was introduced to return the pressure to atmospheric pressure, and the vertical axis represents the number of dust particles. It is clear that the number of dust particles in the reaction chamber 2 decreases as the number of times gas is introduced increases. Incidentally, since the dust counter used in this example cannot measure dust of 1×10 2 or less, it is represented by a broken line in the figure.

After introducing low-dust N2 gas or inert gas into the reaction chamber 2 in this manner, the lid 5 is opened while the N2 gas or inert gas is flowing, and the substrate 1 is mounted on the support 9. do. The substrate 1 used is one that has been thoroughly cleaned with a fluorocarbon ultrasonic cleaning layer or the above-mentioned cleaning layer. Next, after the reaction chamber 2 is evacuated by the vacuum device 4, the raw material gas adjusted to a predetermined mixing ratio by the control box 1) is introduced into the reaction chamber 2. At this time, the vacuum device 4 is adjusted so that the pressure inside the reaction chamber 2 is Q.5 Torr. Further, the surface temperature of the substrate 1 is maintained at 28° C. 0=. Next, a high frequency power of 0.3 W/aJ is applied to the high frequency power supply 7 to cause the raw material gas to react on the surface of the substrate 1 to form a photoconductor layer on the surface of the substrate 10. The above operations were repeated to produce a photoreceptor drum on which the first to third layers of amorphous silicon films were formed under the conditions shown in Figure 2. The number of defective parts was observed using a microscope. Figure 1 (B
) is a diagram showing the results. For comparison, the convex defect portion of a photoreceptor drum manufactured under the conditions shown in FIG. 2 without introducing or exhausting low-dust Nt gas or inert gas was measured. Apparently, in the photosensitive drum manufactured by the method of the present invention, defective portions having a diameter of 30 μm or more, which cause white spots during image formation, are significantly reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 (B) is a diagram showing how the dust in the reaction chamber is reduced by the manufacturing method that is an embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a diagram comparing the number of defects appearing on the surface of a photoconductor drum (photoconductor) manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention and a photoconductor drum (photoconductor) manufactured by a conventional method. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the conditions under which the photoconductor drum (photoconductor) was manufactured. FIG.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a method for manufacturing a photoconductor in which a photoconductor layer is formed on the surface of a substrate using a plasma chemical vapor deposition apparatus, a low-dust N_2 gas or a nitrogen gas is added to the reaction chamber of the plasma chemical vapor deposition apparatus. A method for producing a photoconductor, which comprises introducing a raw material gas into the reaction chamber after introducing and exhausting an active gas several times.