JPH06451Y2 - Glo-discharge decomposition device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a glow discharge decomposition apparatus for manufacturing an electrophotographic photosensitive drum made of, for example, amorphous silicon.

[Prior art and its problems]

Nowadays, electrophotographic photoreceptors using amorphous silicon as a photoconductive layer have been put into practical use, and are rapidly penetrating the market due to their excellent wear resistance, heat resistance, photosensitivity, pollution-free properties and the like.

This electrophotographic photosensitive member is obtained by forming a film on the peripheral surface of a cylindrical substrate by the glow discharge decomposition method, and the substrate temperature is set to about 300 ° C for the film formation. When the temperature drops to room temperature, stress concentrates on the edge of the substrate due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the amorphous silicon layer (hereinafter, amorphous silicon is abbreviated as a-Si) and the substrate.
As a result, there is a problem that the end portion of the substrate is deformed or the a-Si tank formed near the end portion is peeled off.

[Purpose of device]

Therefore, the present invention has been completed in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a glow discharge decomposition apparatus in which the deformation of the end portion of the substrate and the peeling of the film do not occur.

[Means for solving problems]

According to the present invention, a cylindrical substrate is installed inside a reaction chamber into which a film-forming gas is introduced, and a glow discharge electrode plate is arranged so as to face the substrate. In the glow discharge decomposition apparatus for forming a film, there is provided a glow discharge decomposition apparatus, wherein a mask body is provided at an end portion of the peripheral surface of the substrate so that the end portion is not formed.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to a glow discharge decomposition device capable of manufacturing an a-Si photosensitive drum.

FIG. 1 shows a glow discharge decomposition apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows an end portion of a photosensitive drum.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a cylindrical reaction vessel, 1a is its lid, 1b is its peripheral wall, 2 is a cylindrical glow discharge electrode plate, 3 is a cylindrical conductive substrate support, Reference numeral 4 denotes a film-forming cylindrical substrate. The substrate 4 is placed on the flange portion 3a of the substrate support 3, and the peripheral surfaces of the both substrates are in gentle contact with each other and electrically connected. Then, the substrate support 3 is rotationally driven by the motor 5 attached on the lid 1a via the rotary shaft 6, and the tubular substrate 4 is rotated accordingly. The substrate support 3, the rotary shaft 6, the lid 1a, and the peripheral wall 1b are electrically connected to each other, and the power input terminal 7 attached to the peripheral wall 1b and the power input attached to the glow discharge electrode plate 2 are electrically connected. The terminal 8 is connected to a high frequency power source 9, and glow discharge is generated between the glow discharge electrode plate 2 and the substrate 4 under such a power application system, and 10 and 11 react with the electrode plate 2. It is a ring body that electrically insulates the container 1.

Reference numeral 12 is a gas inlet, and 13 is a gas outlet. The a-Si film-forming gas is introduced into the reaction vessel 1 through the gas inlet 12, and then a plurality of electrode plates 2 are provided so as to penetrate therethrough. It is jetted toward the substrate 4 through the gas jet port 14.

In the glow discharge decomposition apparatus, the ring-shaped mask body 15 is provided on each of the upper end and / or the lower end of the substrate 4.
Is attached so that the end surface of the substrate 4 is not formed.

When manufacturing an a-Si photoconductor drum, the substrate 4 is rotationally driven under the power application system and the gas flow system as described above, and the substrate 4 is predetermined by the heater 16 arranged inside the substrate support 3. The temperature is set to and the a-Si film is vapor-phase grown on the substrate 4 by glow discharge decomposition. Then, the gas decomposition residual gas generated by the vapor phase growth is discharged through the gas discharge port 13. The arrow in the figure indicates the direction of gas flow.

A film is formed by using the glow discharge decomposition apparatus having the above structure, and when the mask body 15 is removed after the film formation is completed, the a-Si layer 17 is formed as shown in FIG. 2 (A). The non-film-forming part 4a is formed in this. In the substrate 4 thus formed, the stress is not concentrated on the end portion thereof, as a result, the substrate end portion is not deformed, and the a-Si layer is not peeled off on the end face. However, in the conventional glow discharge decomposition apparatus which does not use the mask body 15, as shown in FIG. 2 (B), the substrate is deformed at the end portion and a part of the a-Si layer is peeled off at the portion (C). Was.

It is desirable that there is substantially no gap between the mask body 15 and the substrate 4, so that the a-Si film-forming gas is transferred to the mask body 1.
It is possible to advantageously achieve the object of the present invention by not entering the inside of 5.

Further, for the mask body 15, it is preferable to select a material whose thermal expansion coefficient is equal to or smaller than that of the substrate 4, so that the mask body 15 is inserted into the substrate 4 at room temperature, and then the substrate When the temperature of 4 is raised and glow discharge is generated, the gap between the mask body 15 and the substrate 4 can be eliminated along with the temperature rise.

It is preferable that the mask body 15 does not deform at 350 ° C. or lower, has heat resistance, and is made of a material that does not generate gas from itself during glow discharge. Stainless steel as such material,
Aluminum etc. Next, the experiments conducted by the inventors will be described.

In the glow discharge decomposition apparatus shown in FIG. 1, a substrate 4 made of aluminum (length 340 mm, outer diameter 100 mm, thickness 4 mm)
, The mask body 15 made of SUS (length 5 mm, outer diameter 104 mm) is attached to both ends of the substrate, and then glow discharge is performed to form an a-Si layer (thickness 30 μm) on the peripheral surface of the substrate. Vapor grown. After that, the mask body 15 was removed, and the outer diameter in the vicinity of the end portion of the substrate was measured, and the result as shown in FIG. 3 was obtained.

In the figure, the horizontal axis is the length from the board edge (in mm),
The vertical axis represents the amount of change in outer diameter from the outer diameter of the substrate before film formation. Further, the circle marks are plots when the mask body 15 is used as described above, the black circles are plots when the mask body 15 is not used, and a and b are respective characteristic curves.

As is clear from this result, it can be seen that the end portion of the substrate did not deform when the mask body 15 was inserted. On the other hand, if the mask body is not inserted, 8 mm from the end
The edge of the substrate was deformed within the range.

[Effect of device]

As described above, according to the glow discharge decomposition apparatus of the present invention, the edge portion of the peripheral surface of the substrate is not formed, and the stress concentration caused by the difference in thermal expansion between the film and the substrate is eliminated. And the peeling of the film disappeared.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various changes and improvements may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a glow discharge decomposition apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 (A) is a schematic view of an end portion of a substrate when a film is formed using a mask body, and FIG. 2 (B) uses a mask body. FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the edge of the substrate when the film is formed without using it, and FIG. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Reaction container 2 ... Glow discharge electrode plate 4 ... Cylindrical substrate for film formation 15 ... Mask body

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A cylindrical substrate is installed inside a reaction chamber into which a film-forming gas is introduced, and a glow discharge electrode plate is arranged so as to face the substrate. In the glow discharge decomposition apparatus for film formation, a mask body is installed at an end of the peripheral surface of the substrate to prevent film formation at the end.