JPS5949550A - Manufacture of electrophotographic receptor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain uniform and dense vapor deposition, by executing an electrical treatment so that the source vapor is electrostatically attracted to the substrate in vapor deposition. CONSTITUTION:A boat 7 contg. the evaporation sources 6, such as Se or Se-Te alloy, is placed on the support 4 of the source 6. A bottom plate 1, a bell 2, the support 4, and the boat 7 are grounded, but the substrate support shaft 3 is insulated from the bottom plate 1, and, e.g., +200-+500V positive potential is applied to it. On the other hand, the vapor evaporated from the source 6 in the heated boat 7 is slightly charged negatively. Ionization of the source vapor is executed by irradiation of electron beams from an electron source.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for producing an electrophotographic photoreceptor in which a photosensitive layer is produced by vacuum-depositing an inorganic material such as selenium or a selenium alloy onto a conductive substrate.

When the photosensitive layer of an electrophotographic photoreceptor is produced by vapor deposition,
The electrical properties of the photosensitive layer tend to vary, and convex or concave pinholes are formed on the surface, causing image defects when the photoconductor is used in a copying machine or a laser printer.

In contrast, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor in which the deposited photoreceptor layer has uniform electrical characteristics and no pinholes are formed on the surface.

This objective is achieved by applying a potential of one polarity to the conductive substrate and charging the vapor of the deposition raw material to the opposite polarity to perform vacuum deposition.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, a substrate support shaft 3 and a deposition source support 4 are supported by the bottom plate and protrude into the interior of a vacuum evaporation tank consisting of a bottom plate 1 and a bell-shaped body 2. A substrate support shaft 6 on which a plurality (three in the figure) of photoreceptor substrates 5 such as aluminum cylinders are tightly fitted and fixed by a method not shown is M.
It is possible to transfer On the vapor deposition source support 4, 8gzSeT
In this apparatus, a boat 7 containing a vapor deposition raw material 6 such as an e-alloy is mounted. In this apparatus, the bottom plate 1, the scale body 21, the vapor deposition source support 4, and the boat 7 are grounded and at ground potential, but the base support shaft 3 is insulated from the bottom plate 1 by an insulating portion 8, and is given a positive potential of, for example, +200 to +500V. The support shaft 3 must be heated in order to maintain the base body 5 at a predetermined humidity level, and an insulating fluid such as oil is circulated inside the shaft. The vapor evaporated from the vapor deposition raw material 6 in the vapor deposition material 7 is slightly negatively charged.

The raw material vapor is ionized by irradiation with an electron beam 10 from an electron source 9, as shown in FIG. The accelerating voltage of electrons is 0.1 to 5.

When vapor deposition is performed while rotating the support shaft 3 in this way, the raw material vapor is electrostatically attracted and adheres to the substrate 5, so it is thought that the structure of the photosensitive layer becomes uniform and dense.
Variations in electrical characteristics have been reduced. Additionally, the number of external pin poles has been significantly reduced compared to the previous model. Especially 0.1~0
．． The number of defects as small as 6 μm was reduced, and the image defect called toner drag on the photoreceptor when used in a copying machine was reduced.

As a result, the defective rate due to variations in electrical properties during the manufacture of photoreceptors was halved, and the defective rate due to appearance was reduced by 30% compared to the conventional method.

Contrary to the above case, the support shaft 6 may be electrically charged as a negative electrode, the boat 7 and the vacuum chambers 1 and 2 may be electrically charged to the ground potential, and the raw material vapor may be electrically charged as positive (i). In this case, the acceleration voltage of the electron beam 10 may be increased to positively charge the vapor.

As described above, the present invention enables uniform and dense vapor deposition by not applying electrical processing in which raw material vapor is electrostatically attracted to the substrate during vacuum vapor deposition. The electrical characteristics of the photosensitive layer are made uniform and the generation of bin poles is prevented, which has an extremely large effect on improving the manufacturing yield of electrophotographic photosensitive members.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a vacuum evaporation apparatus used in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of its evaporation source. 3: Substrate support shaft, 5: Photoreceptor substrate, 6: Evaporation raw material, 8:
Zetsube, 9: Electron source.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) When producing a photosensitive layer by vacuum evaporating an inorganic material onto a conductive substrate, an electronic method characterized by applying a potential of one polarity to the substrate and charging the vapor of the evaporation raw material to the opposite polarity. A method for manufacturing a photographic photoreceptor.