Plasma CVD process using a very-high-frequency and plasma CVD ap

Details Plasma CVD process using a very-high-frequency and plasma CVD ap Plasma CVD process using a very-high-frequency and plasma CVD ap

1994-11-30

1996-07-09

Breneman, R. Bruce

Coating apparatus

Gas or vapor deposition

With treating means

427573, 118723MP, 118730, C23C 1600, H05H 120

Patent

active

055340709

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a plasma CVD process using a very-high-frequency which enables to form a homogeneous large area deposited film having a uniform thickness on a plurality of substrates at a high deposition rate and a plasma CVD apparatus suitable for practicing said plasma CVD process. More particularly, the present invention relates to a plasma CVD process which enables to efficiently form, on a plurality of substrates, a homogeneous large area deposited film having a uniform thickness for large area devices such as electrophotographic photosensitive members at a relatively high deposition rate, using a frequency in a frequency range which is higher than that used in the conventional RF plasma CVD process and a plasma CVD apparatus suitable for practicing said plasma CVD process.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In recent years, the so-called RF plasma CVD process has been frequently used for the production of semiconductor devices. In the RF plasma CVD process, a high frequency of 13.56 MHz is generally used in view of the wireless telegraphy act. The RF plasma CVD process has advantages in that the discharge conditions can be relatively easily controlled and the quality of a film obtained is excellent, but it has drawbacks in that the utilization efficiency of a film-forming raw material gas is not sufficient enough and the deposition rate of a film is relatively small. In order to solve these drawbacks in the RF plasma CVD process, there has proposed a microwave plasma CVD process using a microwave with a frequency of 2.45 GHz. The microwave plasma CVD process has a pronounced advantage which cannot be attained by the RF plasma CVD process. That is, according to the microwave plasma CVD process, there can be attained the formation of a deposited film at an extremely high gas utilization efficiency and at a markedly high deposition rate. Japanese Laid-open patent application No. 186849/1985 (hereinafter referred to as Document 1) discloses an example of such microwave plasma CVD process. Particularly, in Document 1, there is described a microwave plasma CVD process using a microwave plasma CVD apparatus of the constitution shown in FIG. 1.
In the following, description will be made of the microwave plasma CVD technique described in Document 1.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 2222 indicates a vacuum chamber (a deposition chamber). In the vacuum chamber, a plurality of rotary shafts 2238 are arranged in substantially parallel to each other. On each of the rotary shafts, a cylindrical substrate 2212 is positioned such that it can be rotated. Each cylindrical substrate 2212 can be rotated by virtue of a driving force transmitted from a motor 2250 through a driving chain 2264. In FIG. 1, there are shown only two cylindrical substrates for the simplification purpose. Actually, six cylindrical substrates 2212 are concentrically arranged such that they are spacedly positioned while maintaining a desired space between each adjacent cylindrical substrates. Reference numeral 2232 indicates an inner chamber (that is, a discharge space) which is circumscribed and formed by the six cylindrical substrates 2212. Reference numeral 2268 indicates a plasma generated in the inner chamber 2232. Reference numeral 2294 indicates a microwave transmissive window positioned at one end side of the inner chamber 2232. The microwave transmissive window is connected to a microwave power source (a magnetron) 2270 through waveguides 2282 and 2278. Reference numeral 2274 indicates an antenna probe which is extending into the waveguide 2278 from the microwave power source 2270. Reference numeral 2296 indicates another microwave transmissive window disposed at the remaining end side of the inner chamber 2232. This microwave transmissive window is connected to a a microwave power source (a magnetron) 2272 through waveguides 2284 and 2280. Reference numeral 2276 indicates an antenna probe which is extending into the waveguide 2280 from the microwave power source 2272. Microwave energy from each of the micr

REFERENCES:
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patent: 4958591 (1990-09-01), Yamazaki
patent: 5016565 (1991-05-01), Saitoh et al.
patent: 5129359 (1992-07-01), Takei et al.
patent: 5433790 (1995-07-01), Niino et al.
patent: 5439715 (1995-08-01), Okamura et al.
H. Curtins, et al., "Influence of Plasma Excitation Frequency for a Si:H Thin Film Deposition", Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, vol. 7 (1987) pp. 267-273.

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