JPH027055B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention can also be used as an element used for image formation.
The present invention relates to a photoelectric conversion element that can also be used as an element for converting an optical image into an electrical signal, and further relates to an image forming method and a photoelectric conversion method using such a photoelectric conversion element.

Prior Art Conventionally, the most common method for copying images, documents, etc. is xerography, in which an electrostatic latent image is formed by charging and exposing a photoconductive photoreceptor, is developed with toner, and then transferred and fixed onto transfer paper. The law is known. The photoreceptor used in this method has a photoconductive layer provided on a conductive support. Then, the photoconductive layer is formed by vacuum evaporation of Se and alloys such as Te, As, etc., or ZnO, CdS, TIO ₂
It is formed by dispersing and coating an inorganic photoconductor such as in an insulating binder. An electrostatic latent image is generally formed by uniformly charging the surface of a photoreceptor by corona discharge and then selectively eliminating the electrolyte in the exposed area by imagewise exposure. This electrostatic latent image is developed with toner charged to the opposite polarity to the latent image, and then the toner image is transferred to transfer paper.
It will be established. Such electrophotography requires a corona wire, a shield case, a high-voltage power source for corona discharge, etc. for corona charging, and therefore it is difficult to miniaturize the apparatus. In addition, the image quality deteriorates and reliability decreases due to contamination of the corona wire.

Therefore, in order to improve the drawbacks of the conventional electrophotographic method, photoreceptors that do not require corona charging have been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 48-68238 and 51-150342.
Publication No. 1027, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1983-1027, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1987-
It is disclosed in JP-A No. 61534, JP-A-54-61537, etc. These photoreceptors are capable of forming a potential image that can be developed with charged toner without requiring corona charging. Image exposure is performed by applying a voltage to a photoconductive layer provided with electrodes, and a potential image is formed by creating a difference in distributed voltage between exposed and non-exposed areas.

Although the above-mentioned image forming device was satisfactory to some extent in terms of image formation, it was not satisfactory in terms of extracting image signals.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a photoelectric conversion element that can form an image without requiring corona charging and can easily extract an optically corresponding electrical signal. be.

Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide an image forming method and a photoelectric conversion method of a light image using the above photoelectric conversion element.

Structure of the Invention That is, according to the present invention, a transparent support, a plurality of first striped electrodes on the transparent support, and a photoconductive layer on the first striped electrode side of the transparent support. a plurality of second striped electrodes in the photoconductive layer so as to intersect with the first striped electrodes without contacting the first striped electrodes; There is provided a photoelectric conversion element comprising the transparent support and an arcuate conductor located above each three-dimensional intersection of the first and second striped electrodes on a surface opposite to the transparent support.

According to the image forming method of the present invention, the photoelectric conversion element described above is used, a voltage is applied between the first striped electrode and the second striped electrode of the photoelectric conversion element, and the voltage Image exposure is performed under the application of , and development is performed simultaneously with or immediately after the image exposure.

Further, according to the photoelectric conversion method according to the present invention, the above-described photoelectric conversion element is used, and a voltage is applied between the first striped electrode and the second striped electrode of the photoelectric conversion element. Image exposure is performed while a voltage is applied, and at the same time or immediately after the image exposure, a current flowing between the first and second stripe electrodes is detected to obtain an electrical signal corresponding to the optical image.

In this way, when image exposure is performed with a voltage applied between the first and second striped electrodes,
Due to the resistance change in the exposed area of the photoconductive layer, a difference occurs in the voltage distribution between the electrodes across the arc conductor between the exposed area and the non-exposed area, and as a result, due to the surface potential difference between the arc conductors, A potential image is formed. By developing and visualizing this potential image, an image can be formed, and by detecting the current flowing between the first and second striped electrodes or the voltage between the electrodes, an exposed image can be formed. A corresponding electrical signal is obtained.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a typical configuration of a photoelectric conversion element according to the present invention. The photoelectric conversion element 1 includes a transparent support 2, a plurality of first striped electrodes 3 on the transparent support 2, and a photoconductive layer on the first striped electrode 3 side of the transparent support 2. layer 5
and a plurality of second stripe electrodes 4 in the photoconductive layer 5 so as to intersect with the first stripe electrode 3 without contacting the first stripe electrode 3; It consists of a transparent support 2 and an arcuate conductor located above each three-dimensional intersection of the first and second striped electrodes on the opposite surface.

More specifically, the transparent support 2 must be insulating and have a higher resistance than the photoconductive layer 5. Specifically, it is formed of glass, resin film, or the like. The electrode 3 consists of a light-transmitting part 3a and a light-shielding part 3b, and the electrode 4 is formed so as to cross the electrode 3 without contacting it and overlap the light-shielding part 3b of the electrode 3, as schematically shown in FIG. The positional relationship is as shown in . Electrode 3 can be formed by various methods. The typical manufacturing method is vapor deposition and etching using photoresist. According to this method, a material for forming a transparent electrode, such as ln ₂ O ₃ or SnO ₂ , is vapor-deposited on the surface of a support, and then a masking pattern of striped electrodes is formed using a photoresist, and then a masking pattern of striped electrodes is formed using a photoresist. After selectively etching away the ln ₂ O ₃ , SnO _{2 ,} etc. layers using an etching solution, the masking pattern of the photoresist is removed to form a translucent stripe electrode. The electrode 3 is completed by further forming a light-shielding portion 3b on this light-transmitting striped electrode. The electrode material for the light-shielding part is Al,
Ag, Pb, Zn, Nl, Au, Cr, Mo, ln, Nb,
Various metals such as Ta, U, Tl, and Pt are used. As a method for forming the light-shielding electrode portion, a method using a combination of vapor deposition or sputtering and photoresist can be used as described above. As another method, a method may be used in which a light-shielding electrode material is deposited on the light-transmitting striped electrode through a mask having an opening shaped to correspond to the light-shielding portion. The thickness of the light-transmitting electrode portion 3a is approximately 100 to 5000 Å, and the thickness of the light-shielding electrode portion 3b is approximately 500 Å to 5 μ. After the electrode 3 is formed, the electrode 4 and the photoconductive layer 5 are formed.

Electrode 4 is surrounded by a photoconductive layer 5 . Therefore, in order to form the electrode 4 and the photoconductive layer 5, a method can be used in which a portion of the photoconductive layer 5 is first formed, then the electrode 4 is formed, and then the photoconductive layer 5 is formed again. The same material and forming method as the electrode 3 can be used for the electrode 4.

The photoconductive layer 5 is formed by vapor deposition of a selenium-based alloy such as amorphous selenium or arsenic selenide, or an inorganic material such as amorphous silicon.
Or a layer formed by dispersing and coating photoconductive fine powder such as zinc oxide or titanium dioxide in a binder,
Alternatively, an organic photoconductive layer typified by a mixture of polyvinylcarbazole and trinitrofluorenone can be used. The thickness of the photoconductive layer 5 is typically
The thickness is about 500 Å to 100 μ.

The photoconductive layer 5 can be either non-persistently photoconductive or persistently photoconductive. When a non-persistent material is used as the photoconductive layer 5, it is necessary to form a potential image, that is, to perform development and read out the photoelectrically converted signal at the same time as image exposure. When used, development and reading of photoelectric conversion signals can be performed after image exposure. An arcuate conductor 6 is formed on the photoconductive layer 5. The vertical conductor 6 is formed in the same manner as the electrode 3 or the electrode 4. The arcuate conductor 6 is a discontinuous island-shaped conductor, and becomes a pixel of an image to be formed. Examples of the shape of the raised electrode are shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, but the shape is not limited to these shapes, and other shapes may be used.

Next, an image forming method using the photoelectric conversion element described above will be explained with reference to FIG.

The electrode 3 and the electrode 4 are electrically connected via a constant voltage power source 7. In this state, when image exposure is performed by lamp 9 through original 8 from the transparent support side, the potential of the vertical electrode differs between the portions irradiated with light and the portions not irradiated with light, and a potential image corresponding to the original is formed. To explain in detail with reference to FIG. 6 which shows the equivalent circuit of FIG. 5, the voltage applied by the power supply 7 is
Va, and the resistance between the electrode 4 and the vertical conductor 6 is
Assuming that R ₁ and the resistance between the transparent electrode 3a and the vertical conductor 6 are _R2 , the potential Vo of the isolated conductor 6 is the voltage between the isolated conductor 6 and the transparent electrode 3a. , is expressed by the following equation ().

Vo=R ₂ /R ₁ +R ₂ Va=1/R ₁ /R ₂ +1Va () When image exposure is performed from the transparent support side with voltage Va applied, the exposed area is shielded from light by the light-shielding electrode 3b. Since light does not reach the photoconductive layer 5 in that part, the resistance R ₁ between the electrode 4 and the vertical conductor 6 does not change. In addition, since light reaches the photoconductive layer in the transparent electrode 3a portion, the resistance R ₂ between the transparent electrode 3a and the arcuate conductor 6 decreases, and the potential of the arcuate conductor according to the above equation. will also decrease. On the other hand, in the non-exposed area,
Since neither R ₁ nor R ₂ changes, the potential of the vertical conductor also does not change. As a result, a potential image with a lower potential is formed in the exposed portion. The potential image thus formed is developed with toner 12 by a developing roll 11 biased by a bias power supply 10, for example, by a normal developing method in electrophotography, and then transferred onto plain paper. When a non-persistent photoconductive layer is used as the photoconductive layer 5 of the image-forming element, a potential image is formed only during photoimage exposure, so development must be carried out simultaneously with exposure. On the other hand, when a persistent photoconductive layer is used as the photoconductive layer 5, a potential image is formed even after light irradiation, and there is no need to perform development at the same time as exposure, so there are fewer restrictions on the apparatus. Furthermore, since development is possible as long as the continuous photoconductivity does not disappear, it is possible to obtain a plurality of copies with one exposure. When forming a new image, the image forming element is left in a dark place or heated and then used repeatedly. The heating conditions depend on the characteristics of the persistent photoconductive layer used, but are preferably about 50 to 200°C.

Next, a photoelectric conversion method for converting an optical image into an electrical signal using the same photoelectric conversion element will be explained with reference to FIG. The electrode 4 of the photoelectric conversion element, which is partially shown in FIG. 7, is connected to a power source 14 via a scanning section 13. The scanning unit 13 scans and selects one (or a part) of the electrodes 4 and applies a voltage from the power source 14 . The electrode 3 is a scanning section 1 for signals.
It is connected to the signal detection section 16 via 5. One (or a part) of the electrodes 3 is scanned and selected by the scanning section 15, and the signal of the photoelectric conversion element is sent to the signal output section. As described above, the image signal at the intersection of the electrodes 4 and 3 determined by the scanning units 13 and 15 is extracted. The electrodes 4 and 3 can be selected mechanically or optically in addition to electrically scanning.

Next, specific examples of the present invention will be explained.

Example 1 Ln ₂ O ₃ was deposited on a transparent glass substrate through a mask to form a striped light-transmitting electrode with a width of 150 μm, a pitch of 250 μm, and a thickness of 1000 Å. Then similarly,
Al was vapor-deposited through a mask to form a light-shielding electrode having a width of 150 μm, a length of 150 μm, and a pitch in the longitudinal direction of 250 μm on the light-transmitting striped electrode. Due to the above,
A light-shielding part with a width of 150μ and a length of 150μ and a length of 150μ in width.
The electrodes are arranged alternately with 100μ translucent parts.
A plurality of striped electrodes 3 were formed parallel to each other at a pitch of 250 μm. Se was vacuum-deposited thereon at a support temperature of 60° C. in 10 ⁻⁶ torr to form an amorphous Se photoconductive layer with a thickness of about 40 μm. Al was vapor-deposited on this through a mask, and striped electrodes 4 having a width of 50 μm and a pitch of 250 μm were provided. This electrode was formed so as to be perpendicular to the light-shielding portion 3b of the striped electrode 3 on the substrate. Furthermore, about 10μ on top of this
A layer of amorphous Se was deposited as described above. Al was evaporated onto this through a mask to form arcuate conductors with a width of 255μ and a spacing of 25μ. The size of each electrode of the image forming element made by the above method is shown in Figures 2 and 4.
The figure shows approximately the following values. a
=50μ, b=200μ, c=150μ, d=100μ, e=f
=225μ, g=h=25μ. The substrate side electrode 3 of this photoelectric conversion element is grounded, and the electrode in the photoconductive layer is
When a voltage of 500V was applied and exposure was performed from the glass side, the arcuate electrode surface was developed using a two-component dry developer. As a result, the arcuate electrode surface was used as a pixel, and toner was deposited on the isolated conductor surface corresponding to the original. It adhered and an image was obtained.

Next, each electrode in the photoconductive layer was connected to a power supply scanning section, and each electrode on the substrate side was connected to a signal scanning section, and each electrode was scanned at the same time as image exposure. We were able to extract the corresponding photoelectric conversion signals in time series.

Example 2 Striped electrodes of the substrate example were formed on a glass substrate in the same manner as in Example 1. Next, 80 parts by weight of ZnO powder,
A paint containing 20 parts by weight of acrylic resin as a binder, a small amount of rose bengal (0.1 wt% relative to ZnO), and a small amount of copper stearate (0.1 wt% relative to ZnO) dispersed together with xylene is applied onto the electrode substrate. It dried to form a sustained photoconductive layer of about 15 microns. On top of this, an electrode in the photoconductive layer is formed in the same manner as in Example 1,
Furthermore, a photoconductive layer mainly consisting of the above-mentioned ZnO and a binder was formed thereon to a thickness of about 5 μm. An isolated conductor was formed thereon in the same manner as in Example 1 to form an image forming element.

The electrodes of the substrate array of the photoelectric conversion element thus created were grounded, a voltage of 500V was applied to the electrodes in the photoconductive layer, and after exposure from the glass side, the unexposed area was developed with a two-component dry developer. The toner adhered to the isolated conductor, and an image was obtained. After the developed toner image was transferred to a transfer paper in a dark place, the image was developed by applying voltage again without exposure, and an image similar to the first image was obtained. After cleaning this photoelectric conversion element, approximately
When we heated it to 100℃ and conducted the same test again, the previous image completely disappeared, and we were able to use it repeatedly.

Next, each electrode in the photoconductive layer was connected to a scanning section for power supply, and each electrode on the substrate side was connected to a scanning section for signal scanning, and each electrode was scanned at the same time as image exposure. We were able to extract a time-series signal corresponding to the information.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above, by using the photoelectric conversion element according to the present invention, it is possible to form an image without requiring corona charging, and it is possible to easily obtain an electrical signal corresponding to an optical image. Can be done. Also,
According to the image forming method and photoelectric conversion method according to the present invention, a developed image can be easily obtained, and a photoelectric conversion signal corresponding to the exposed optical image can be easily obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the basic structure of a photoelectric conversion element according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the planar arrangement of electrodes of the photoelectric conversion element of FIG. 1. 3 and 4 are diagrams showing examples of the shape of the isolated conductor of the photoelectric conversion element of FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the image forming method according to the present invention using the photoelectric conversion element according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is an equivalent circuit diagram of the circuit of the photoelectric conversion element shown in FIG.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the photoelectric conversion method according to the present invention using the photoelectric conversion element according to the present invention. 1... Photoelectric conversion element, 2... Transparent support, 3,
4... Striped electrode, 3a... Light-transmitting electrode portion, 3b... Light-shielding electrode portion, 5... Photoconductive layer, 6... Isolated conductor, 7... Power supply, 8... Original, 9 ... Lamp, 10 ... Bias power supply, 11
...Development roller, 12...Toner, 13...Power supply scanning section, 14...Power supply, 15...Signal output scanning section, 16...Signal detection section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A transparent support, a plurality of first striped electrodes on the transparent support, and a photoconductive layer on the first striped electrode side of the transparent support,
a plurality of second striped electrodes in the photoconductive layer so as to intersect with the first striped electrodes without contacting the first striped electrodes; and the transparent support of the photoconductive layer. and an isolated conductor located above each three-dimensional intersection of the first and second striped electrodes on a surface opposite to the body. 2. a transparent support, a plurality of first striped electrodes on the transparent support, and a photoconductive layer on the first striped electrode side of the transparent support;
a plurality of second striped electrodes in the photoconductive layer so as to intersect with the first striped electrodes without contacting the first striped electrodes; and the transparent support of the photoconductive layer. a photoelectric conversion element comprising an isolated conductor located above each three-dimensional intersection of the first and second striped electrodes on a surface opposite to the body; An image forming method characterized in that a voltage is applied between an electrode and a second striped electrode, image exposure is performed under the voltage application state, and development is performed simultaneously with or immediately after the image exposure. 3. a transparent support, a plurality of first striped electrodes on the transparent support, and a photoconductive layer on the first striped electrode side of the transparent support;
a plurality of second striped electrodes in the photoconductive layer so as to intersect with the first striped electrodes without contacting the first striped electrodes; and the transparent support of the photoconductive layer. a photoelectric conversion element comprising an isolated conductor located above each three-dimensional intersection of the first and second striped electrodes on a surface opposite to the body; A voltage is applied between the electrode and the second striped electrode, image exposure is performed while the voltage is applied, and a current flows between the first and second striped electrodes at the same time or immediately after the image exposure. An image forming method characterized by detecting and obtaining an electrical signal corresponding to an optical image.