Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Hiroshi Echizen

Masahiro Kanai

Katsumi Nakagawa

Yasushi Fujioka

Tetsuya Takei

Toshimitsu Kariya

Jinsho Matsuyama

Takehito Yoshino

Masatoshi Tanaka

Kohei Yoshida

Yasuyoshi Takai

Hirokazu Ohtoshi

Satoshi Takaki

Koichiro Moriyama

Atsushi Yasuno

Hiroshi Izawa

Akiyoshi Suzuki

Akiya Nakayama

Hirokazu Otoshi

Toshihiro Yamashita

Mineo Shimotsusa

Masafumi Sano

Yutaka Hirai

Hisanori Tsuda

Hidetoshi Tsuzuki

Yusuke Miyamoto

Ryozo Hiraga

Naoto Okada

Katsuji Takasu

Akio Koganei

Shuichiro Sugiyama

Shigeo Kiso

Takashi Omata

Takashi Kurokawa

Kazumasa Takatsu

Masakatsu Ota

Toshio Adachi

A light guide portion includes a low refractive index portion and a high refractive index portion. The low refractive index portion has a refractive index equal to or lower than that of an insulating layer. The high refractive index portion has a refractive index higher than that of the low refractive index portion. The low refractive index portion is located above a separating portion, and is sandwiched by the high refractive index portion in a first direction. A width in the first direction of the low refractive index portion at a first position distant from the separating portion in a second direction is narrower than a width in the first direction of the low refractive index portion at a second position closer to the separating portion than the first position in the second direction.

Photoelectric conversion apparatus, manufacturing method thereof, and image pickup system

In a deposited-film formation apparatus or process having the means or steps of evacuating the inside of an inside-evacuatable chamber through an evacuation piping by an evacuation means, feeding a material gas into the chamber while evacuating the inside of the chamber, and applying a high-frequency power to form a deposited film on a substrate disposed inside the chamber, a leak is detected on the basis of a measured value of a temperature sensor which detects the heat of reaction that is generated when the material gas fed into the chamber reacts with oxygen contained in air having entered from the outside, so as to be able to stop the material gas feeding. In deposited-film formation apparatus or processes making use of spontaneously ignitable gases, the leak can quickly be detected when air enters the chamber because of any unexpected accident such as a break of piping.

Leak judgment method, and computer-readable recording medium with recorded leak-judgment-executable program

In a wet-process gas treatment method of treating an acid gas by using at least two treating columns connected in series, a ratio of the concentration of an acid gas at an outlet to a concentration of the acid gas at an inlet of a first treating column is set higher than a ratio of the concentration of the acid gas at an outlet to the concentration of acid gas at an inlet of at least one of the other treating columns, thereby preventing deposits from forming in the interior of connecting pipes between the columns and in the interiors of the treating columns, to prevent the connecting pipes from being blocked.

Wet process gas treatment apparatus

In a process for forming on a substrate a transparent conductive film having crystallizability, the process comprises a first step of forming a film at a first film formation rate and a second step of forming a film at a second film formation rate, and the relationship between film formation rates in the respective steps satisfies:2&#x2266;(second film formation rate)/(first film formation rate)&#x2266;100;which provides a process for producing a transparent conductive film by a deposition process advantageous for cost reduction, which can form in a short time a transparent conductive film having an uneven surface profile with a high light-confining effect, and can bring about an improvement in photovoltaic performance and enjoy a high mass productivity when applied to the formation of multi-layer structure of photovoltaic devices.

Transparent conductive film formation process, photovoltaic device production process, transparent conductive film, and photovoltaic device

There are provided techniques of forming a back reflecting layer with constant characteristics throughout long-term film formation and forming a metal oxide film so as to be able to maintain a current of a bottom cell and thereby keep a short-circuit current Jsc of a solar cell constant over a long period of time. A sputtering method is a method of forming a stack of a metal film and a metal oxide film, comprising the step 1 of forming a metal layer on a substrate, the step 2 of bringing a surface of the metal layer into contact with active oxygen, and the step 3 of forming a metal oxide film thereon after the step 2, wherein in the step 2 an amount of active oxygen at a first substrate position is different from that at a second substrate position.

Long-Term sputtering method

Wet-process gas treatment method and wet-process gas treatment apparatus

In a sputtering method for forming a film on a substrate in a film forming space while monitoring emission intensity of plasma, the method comprises the steps of detecting a thickness of the film formed on the substrate; comparing a detected value with a preset value of the film thickness; and deciding a target value of the emission intensity in accordance with a compared result. With the method, a transparent conductive film is formed which has high uniformity in film thickness, sheet resistance and transmittance and hence has superior characteristics.

Sputtering method and sputtering apparatus

Since the transfer speed of a substrate is controlled to compensate for a film-forming rate, and an electric power applied to heating means for heating the substrate is controlled so that thermal equilibrium of the substrate is maintained, a film having a uniform thickness and quality can be stably formed even when sputtering is performed for a long time.

Sputtering method for forming film and apparatus therefor

To provide a deposited-film forming process and a deposited-film forming apparatus that may cause no scratches on the film forming surface to improve yield and enable stable discharge to thereby continuously form deposited films having uniform quality and uniform thickness, deposited films are formed by lengthwise continuously transporting a belt-like substrate so as to form a part of a discharge space, wherein the substrate is transported while bringing the transverse sectional shape of the substrate which forms a part of the discharge space into a curved shape by a roller.

Deposited-film forming process and deposited-film forming apparatus

A film forming method is described using an apparatus with a plurality of vacuum chambers which communicate with each other via a connection, where the apparatus has one or more detachable treatment rooms and where the method includes continuously forming a plurality of films on a band-shaped substrate within the treatment rooms, while continuously moving the substrate through the treatment rooms. The treatment rooms within said desired vacuum chambers are replaced after forming the film for a predetermined period as a part of the film forming method.

Film forming method

A film forming apparatus for forming a plurality of films on a substrate through a continuous process, comprising a plurality of vacuum chambers in communication to each other via connection, at least vacuum chamber having internally a treatment detachable from the vacuum chamber for fulfilling a predetermined treatment on the substrate.

Film forming apparatus

A microwave plasma CVD apparatus comprising a hermetically sealed vacuum vessel, an evacuating means for evacuating the vacuum vessel, and microwave introducing means for introducing a microwave through a microwave transmission circuit into the vacuum vessel to produce a plasma within the vacuum vessel. The microwave transmission circuit includes a cavity resonator integrally provided with two matching circuits. The microwave plasma CVD apparatus solves all the problems in the conventional microwave plasma CVD apparatus, operates at a high rate of operation, improves working efficiency, reduces the manufacturing cost of a-Si devices, and reduces variance in performance between devices employing films deposited by the microwave plasma CVD apparatus. Since the microwave plasma CVD apparatus does not employ any large electromagnet, a film can be formed on a surface having a large area simply by selectively deciding a microwave propagation mode. Since the distance between the cavity resonator and the coupling hole can be varied, the microwave impedance can always be matched regardless of the sectional area of ionization, so that microwave power is used effectively and the gases are used at a very high efficiency.

Microwave chemical vapor deposition apparatus

A deposit film forming apparatus is characterized in that a temperature control member for controlling the temperature of a wall of deposition chamber is in contact with an outer wall of a deposition chamber through a heat conductivity adjusting plate, which can prevent overcooling while suppressing an increase in the temperature of the wall of deposition chamber during film formation and which can maintain the temperature of the wall of deposition chamber at a preferable temperature for deposition of film for a long time, thereby forming a deposit film. As a result, the apparatus can mass-produce deposit films of stable quality, especially, large-area and good-quality photovoltaic elements utilizing amorphous semiconductors, over a long period.

Deposited film forming apparatus

A microwave plasma CVD method for continuously forming a large area and length functional deposited film, the method comprises: continuously moving a substrate web in the longitudinal direction by paying out it by a pay-out mechanism and taking up it by a take-up mechanism; establishing a substantially enclosed film-forming chamber by curving and projecting said moving substrate web to form a columnar portion to be the circumferential wall of said film forming chamber on the way moving from said pay-out mechanism toward said take-up mechanism; introducing a film-forming raw material gas through a gas feed means into said film-forming chamber; at the same time, radiating a microwave energy in said film-forming chamber by using a microwave applicator means, which is so designed that it can radiate a microwave energy in the direction parallel to the microwave propagating direction, to generate microwave plasma in said film-forming chamber, whereby continuously forming a deposited film on the inner wall face of said continuously moving circumferential wall to be exposed to said microwave plasma. A microwave plasma CVD apparatus suitable practicing said method.

Process for continuously forming a large area functional deposited film

A microwave plasma processing apparatus comprises a vacuum processing chamber, a substrate disposed within the vacuum processing chamber, a microwave guide coupled to the vacuum processing chamber, and fins for dividing a microwave in the electric field direction. The length of fins are different such that the uniformity of the film thickness distribution on the substrate of large area can be improved.

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Nara, Japan

Hiroshi Echizen