JPS5854345A - Production for amorphous silicon electrophotographic receptor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce a photoreceptor which has a uniform characteristic throughout the surface, by sticking an amorphous silicon onto a supporting material, which consists of an electric resistance material subjected to resistance heating with power supply, to form a photosensitive layer. CONSTITUTION:Electrode plates 2A and 2B are fixed to overall circumferences of both end faces of a metallic cylindrical drum 1 having a specific resistance of >=1.7X10<-6>OMEGA. cm at 0 deg.C, and this drum 1 is stood vertically on a glass base 4 in a tank 3, which produces a film with glow discharge, and is held, and cables 7A and 7B extending through a base plate 5 of the tank 3 airtightly are connected to electrode plates 2A and 2B. Air in the tank 3 is discharged through a discharge path 10, and a mixture gas between gaseous silane and gaseous H2 is supplied from a supply pipe 11 into the tank 3, and power is supplied to the drum 1 through electrode plates 2A and 2B by a power source 6 to heat the drum 1 at 200-450 deg.C, and simultaneously, a high frequency voltage is applied to an induction coil 12, which is provided on the outside face of the tank 3, from a high frequency power source 13 to generate glow discharge, thus accumulating a photosensitive layer consisting of an amorphous silicon on the outside circumferential face of the drum 1.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a body.

Generally, an electrophotographic photoreceptor is constructed by providing a photoconductive photosensitive layer on a conductive support. Conventionally, selenium, zinc oxide, cadmium sulfide, etc. have been used as materials for the photosensitive layer, but these require spectral sensitization, do not provide great durability, or are toxic. There are problems such as having

On the other hand, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (hereinafter referred to as "a-silicon") can be used as a material for the photosensitive layer because it can advantageously form a thin photosensitive layer with a large area required for an electrophotographic photoreceptor. being researched.

As a method for producing a-silicon, a so-called glow discharge method is known as a method that can form practical a-silicon. In this method, silane gas, etc. is decomposed by glow discharge in a vacuum chamber, and a-silicon into which hydrogen has been introduced is deposited on the substrate using the decomposition product. By this, the dangling bonds in a-silicon are sealed, so that good a-silicon can be obtained.

Therefore, in this glow discharge method, a
- In order to increase the efficiency of silicon deposition and to obtain characteristics that satisfy the conditions necessary for a photosensitive layer, the substrate must be coated with 200 - #! It is necessary to heat the substrate to a temperature of 0℃, and for this purpose, a linear, rod-shaped, or mesh-shaped heater is installed behind the substrate to perform the necessary heating. According to this, it is extremely difficult to heat the entire substrate to a uniform temperature, and as a result,
Temperature unevenness on the substrate causes unevenness in the adhesion and structure of a-silicon, and since the photoconductive properties of a-silicon are greatly affected by subtle changes in conditions, it is difficult to maintain uniform properties as a result. Furthermore, when the heater is exposed to the raw material gas, the heater itself reaches a considerably high temperature, and the heat causes the raw material gas to decompose, causing the heater to decompose. There are also problems such as contamination.

The present invention has been made based on the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to reliably produce an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a photosensitive layer made of a-silicon and having uniform characteristics over its entire surface. The purpose is to provide a method that can be used.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, conductive electrode plates 2A, 2B are fixedly provided so as to be in contact with each other, and #! As shown in Fig. 2, a current-pull from a power source t is held vertically on an insulator mount in a glow discharge film-forming tank 3, and extends through the base plate j of the film-forming tank 3 in an airtight manner. 7A and 7B are connected to one of the electrode plates 2, and the other cable 7B is inserted into the drum l through the center hole r of the two electrode plates, and the other cable 7B is connected to the other electrode plate. Connect it to 2B. Then, the inside of the film forming tank 3 is evacuated by an exhaust pump (not shown) via an exhaust path 10 having a valve 9 connected to the base plate s, and a source gas is supplied connected to the upper end of the film forming tank 3. A raw material gas consisting of a mixed gas of silane gas and hydrogen gas is supplied from the tube /l, and electricity is applied to the drum l via the electrode plate 2m and JB from the power supply B, thereby causing the drum l to generate resistance heat, and its temperature to 20
While maintaining the temperature at 0-#10'C, a high frequency voltage is applied by a high frequency power supply 13 to the induction coil 12 provided on the outer peripheral surface of the film forming tank 3 to generate a glow discharge in the film forming tank 3, As a result, a-silicon is deposited on the outer peripheral surface of the drum l to form an a-silicon layer, thereby manufacturing an a-silicon electrophotographic photoreceptor having the a-silicon layer as a photosensitive layer. .

The present invention is a method as described above, in which the drum l generates resistance heat by being energized by the electrode plates JA and JB at both ends thereof, but since this heat generation occurs in the entire drum l, the outer circumferential surface of the drum l is heated over its entire surface. Therefore, the temperature becomes uniform over 1!, and therefore the subclinical deposition of a-silicon on the outer peripheral surface 1! Since the If and its conditions are the same in all parts, an a-silicon layer with uniform physical properties such as film thickness and structure and uniform photoconductive properties is formed, and therefore the properties are uniform over the entire surface. It is possible to produce an electrophotographic photoreceptor having particularly good charging characteristics.

Here, since the drum l serves as a support for the electrophotographic photoreceptor, it is required to have enough conductivity to allow photocurrent to flow, but in order to fully obtain the effect of the above-mentioned resistance heating, The resistivity at temperature rilo ℃ is 1. '7 X 1
It is preferable to use a metal with a resistance of 0-'Ω or more as the material, and specific examples include stainless steel "SU
Examples include S 317 J, "Hastelloy B", and Inconel, which meet practically sufficient conditions as drums for electrophotographic photoreceptors in other respects as well.

In the present invention, the method for forming a-silicon is arbitrary, and in addition to the glow discharge method as described above, sputtering, ion blating, vapor deposition, etc. can be used. The glow discharge method, which has no directionality in deposition, is preferable since it is not necessary to rotate the drum 1 as in the illustrated example, and from this point as well, a uniform a-silicon layer can be formed.

The specific conditions of each part in the glow discharge method are well known, but to give an example, the degree of vacuum in the film forming tank 1 is 3
10 'l'orr, the ratio of raw material gas silane gas and hydrogen gas is 1011%, and the supply 11 is 100CC7
, the frequency of the high frequency power source 13 is IJJt MHz, the power is o, tpcw.

Although the case where a drum is used as the substrate constituting the support body has been described above, the present invention can be applied to obtain similar effects even when a plate-shaped or sheet-shaped substrate is used.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a method for reliably manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a photosensitive layer made of a-silicon and having uniform characteristics over its entire surface. can.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 each show an embodiment of the method for manufacturing an amorphous silicon electrophotographic photoreceptor of the present invention.
100. They are an explanatory perspective view of a drum and an electrode plate, and an explanatory cross-sectional view of an electrode film device using a glow discharge method. Drum, Core A, 2B... Electrode plate, 3... Glow discharge film forming tank 1.100. Base plate, l...
Center hole, 10... Exhaust path, ll... Raw material gas supply pipe, /3... High frequency power supply.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) An amorphous silicon electrophotographic photosensitive method characterized in that a photosensitive layer is formed by depositing amorphous silicon on the surface of a support made of an electric resistor while electrical current is applied to the support to generate resistance heat. How the body is manufactured.