JPS63163859A - Manufacture of electrophotographic sensitive body - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance surface quality by setting a substrate on a shaft arranged revolvably and rotatably in a film forming vessel and exciting a source gas with an electron cyclotron resonance source arranged around the substrate to form a film on the substrate. CONSTITUTION:The requirements of the electron cyclotron resonance source (ECR) are satisfied by adjusting the current to be fed to a magnetic coil, microwaves are introduced through a microwave introduction inlet 16, a gas containing the silicon, i.e., the source gas for forming the film is introduced through a source gas introduction tube 19, such as monosilane or disilane, is fed. The source gas is guided from the tube 19 through distributing tubes 20 into resonators 13, excited there with the microwaves, and brought into the film forming vessel 11 to form a silicon film on the substrate setted on the shaft 12, thus permitting film forming speed to be enhanced by feeding the source gas directly into the resonators 13, and consequently, the surface quality of a photosensitive body to be enhanced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor having a photosensitive layer made of a photoconductive material using a hydrogen-silicon compound as a base material.

[Conventional technology]

Electrostatic copying machines, printers, etc. have traditionally used S e , S e / T e , A s as photoreceptor materials for electrophotographic methods such as the Carlson method.
Inorganic photoconductive materials such as 2Se3, CdS, and ZnO and organic materials such as PVK-TNF have been used.

These various materials each have characteristics as a photoreceptor, but they lack rigidity, have insufficient sensitivity, etc.
Furthermore, it has drawbacks such as toxicity, and it cannot be said that it fully satisfies the characteristics required of a photoreceptor.

In contrast, amorphous silicon (A-5T)-based materials have been commercialized in part because they have excellent rigidity and heat resistance, and have little impact on environmental pollution.
Although S k photoreceptors have many characteristics superior to conventional photoreceptors, they are currently much more expensive. This is because glow discharge, sputtering, and photoC
This shows that a mass production method suitable for mass production or high-mix, low-volume production has not been established for various methods such as VD.

The necessary conditions for cost reduction are an increase in film formation speed and a mass production system, but in order to increase the film formation speed, silane (
It is necessary to increase the density of excited species in the raw material gas such as S tH4) and disila7 (S i2 HG).

For this purpose, in addition to glow discharge using frequencies ranging from direct current to radio frequencies, which have been conventionally used, film-forming methods using microwaves with even higher frequencies have also been attempted. There is also an electron cyclotron resonance source (ECR) method that adds . However, these methods also
There are many problems in terms of film formation speed and mass production method.

FIG. 5 shows a principle diagram of an ECR film forming apparatus. A plasma chamber 1 has a microwave introduction section 2) a gas introduction section 3, a magnetic coil 4, and an outlet 5. The film chamber 6 includes a raw material gas introduction section 7, a substrate holder 8, and an exhaust port 9. A microwave of 2.45 GHz, for example, is introduced from the microwave introduction part 2 of the plasma chamber 1, and excited gases such as N2, N2, rare gas, etc. are introduced from the gas introduction part 3, and discharge is started in a state that satisfies the ECR conditions. Let it happen. In this case, the microwave frequency is 2.45 GH
If z, the magnetic flux density that satisfies the ECR condition is 875gau
It is ss. The film forming chamber 6 is evacuated by an exhaust pump connected to an exhaust port 9, and S of the film forming raw material gas is supplied from the raw material gas inlet 7.
iH4 is introduced. This raw material gas comes into contact with the excited gas excited in the plasma chamber 1 and becomes active, so that film formation on the substrate holder 8 progresses.

The substrate is heated to 100 to 300°C if necessary.

The film forming method described above has the following drawbacks.

First, since the raw material gas is not directly exposed to the plasma, it is indirectly excited, and the efficiency is poor. In other words, the deposition rate is not as high as expected from the increase in plasma density, and is at most 10μm/h. r, which is equivalent to the maximum value of a normal glow discharge.

Second, the plasma chamber of the ECR method is designed to generate one or more specific constant pressure waves to facilitate the generation of electrical discharge. Therefore, it is difficult to increase the size of the plasma chamber to 1 to 2 m so as to be suitable for mass production of photoreceptors, and there is a lack of expandability in the film forming area.

Third, film formation methods such as glow discharge, sputtering, and microwaves can also achieve high speed film formation of 20 μm/hr or more if many quality requirements for photoreceptors are ignored; When high-speed film formation is performed, the film quality becomes non-uniform, and abnormal growth areas such as film protrusions are likely to occur, increasing defects on images. This is the same in the case of the ECR method, and if consistent conditions are not set, quality problems will occur.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In view of the drawbacks of conventional film forming methods as described above, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a photoreceptor having a photosensitive layer made of a photoconductive material with hydrogen-silicon as a base material at high speed and with high quality. The purpose is to

[Means for solving problems]

According to the present invention, this purpose is achieved by installing a substrate on a shaft that is rotatably arranged in a film-forming container, and exciting source gas with an electron cyclotron resonance source placed around the substrate to form a film on the substrate. This is achieved by performing a membrane.

[Effect]

In the present invention, the substrate faces an electron cyclotron resonance source and is exposed to a film-forming source gas directly excited by the electron cyclotron resonance source to form a film.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows the structure of a film forming furnace used in the method of the present invention. A plurality of shafts 12 are arranged in a cylindrical film forming container 11, and these shafts 12 have a length, for example. It was chosen to be 2000 m long and about 80 wn in diameter, and is able to rotate and revolve as shown by the arrow.Heating means such as a heater are installed inside, and a cylindrical aluminum base is attached to the outside. has been done.

A resonance 51, which is an ECR source, is located around the furnace wall of the film forming container 11.
A plurality of resonators 3 are attached, and each resonator 13 is connected to a waveguide 14 which is a microwave supply path. Although not shown in the figure, an exhaust pump for exhausting the film-forming source gas is attached to the film-forming container 11. As shown in detail in FIG. 2, the resonator 13 is surrounded by a magnetic coil 15, the microwave inlet 16 has a seal window 17 for blocking the atmosphere, and the vicinity of the deposition container connection port 18 has a seal window 17. A source gas introduction pipe 19 and a gas distribution pipe 20 are provided, and a plasma chamber 21 is formed inside.

To form a film, the current supplied to the magnetic coil is adjusted to a value that satisfies the ECR conditions, microwaves are introduced from the microwave inlet 16, and silicon, which is the material gas for film formation, is introduced from the material gas introduction pipe 19. When a gas containing gas such as monosilane (SiH2), disilane (Si2Hg), etc. is supplied, the raw material gas is guided from the gas distribution pipe 20 into the resonator 13, where it is excited by microwaves, enters the film forming container 11, and passes through the shaft. A silicon film is formed on the substrate 12. In this case, by directly supplying the raw material gas into the resonator 13, which is the ECR source, the film forming rate can be significantly improved. That is, according to the conventional method, the resonator 1
3 has only a gas introduction pipe 22 for supplying gases such as hydrogen and rare gas (halogen gas), and raw material gas for film formation is supplied into the film formation furnace. For example, 30 cc of H2 gas is supplied from the gas introduction pipe, 20 cc of s i H4 is supplied into the film forming furnace, microwave frequency is 2.45 GH2) microwave power is 400 W, substrate temperature is 180°C, and gas pressure is 5 m.
The deposition rate when deposited under Torr conditions is 7 μm/h.
It was r. On the other hand, under the same conditions, when only SiH4 was supplied from the source gas introduction pipe 19 and no gas was supplied from the gas introduction pipe 22, the film formation rate was 15 μm/h.
reached r.

If the resonator 13 as an ECR source is not placed within a predetermined angle θ from a vertical line passing through the center of the film forming container 11 as shown in FIG. This prevents the particles from falling onto the shaft 12 to which the substrate is attached, and the surface quality of the photoreceptor is improved. The angle θ is approximately 30°.

3 and 4 show the arrangement of the ECR sources as seen in the axial direction of the film forming container 11. In the example of FIG. 13 are arranged, whereas in the example shown in Fig. 4, they are arranged parallel to the axial direction of the film-forming container and alternately in the circumferential direction, which improves the uniformity of the film-forming distribution on the substrate. can be secured.

In the figure, 23 is a drive/exhaust system.

Although FIG. 1 shows the ECR source disposed outside the furnace wall of the film-forming container, it can also be disposed inside the furnace wall.

The gas pressure during film formation is important in improving the surface quality of the photoreceptor, and at 100 mTorr or more, there is a high probability of collision between gas molecules, and undecomposed powder is generated, resulting in a decrease in surface quality.

Further, in order to form a film under conditions where collisions of gas molecules are small, it is preferable that the distance between the substrate and the ECR source be within 10 times the mean free path of the gas molecules.

In addition, in the above example, 5iHq was used as the raw material gas.
-3ill! ll! We have explained the manufacturing of aS'
+ -xCx (H) (0<x≦1), a-3i
+ -yNy (H) (0<1≦4/3), a-S++
- Various amorphous silicon films such as (H) (0<z≦2), films containing polysilicon, a-Zn
Se, a-Zn○, aAs2Se3, a-S e /
The present invention is also effective for manufacturing films such as Te.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, an electron cyclotron resonance source is properly arranged around the substrate on which a film is to be formed, and the raw material gas is directly excited, thereby obtaining a photoreceptor with a fast film formation rate and excellent surface quality. be able to.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an electron cyclotron resonance source used in the method of the present invention, and FIGS. Side views of examples of different arrangements of cyclotron resonance sources,
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an apparatus for carrying out the conventional method. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Film-forming container, 12... Shaft, 13 Resonator (electron cyclotron resonance source), 19... Atomic gas introduction tube, 21... Plasma chamber. Ina 1 diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A substrate is placed on a shaft that is arranged in a film forming container so as to be able to rotate around its axis, and a source gas is excited by an electron cyclotron resonance source placed around the substrate to form a film on the substrate. A method for producing an electrophotographic photoreceptor, the method comprising: 2) A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor according to claim 1, characterized in that a plurality of electron cyclotron resonance sources are arranged horizontally in a plurality of rows. 3) The manufacturing method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the electron cyclotron resonance source is arranged in an angular range of more than 30° to the left and right from a vertical line passing through the center of the film-forming furnace. A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor. 4) A method for manufacturing an electrophotographic photoreceptor according to claim 1, characterized in that the film-forming gas pressure is 100 mTorr or less.