The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 26, 2025
Filed:
Nov. 01, 2021
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Sakai, JP;
Akiko Kihara, Sakai, JP;
SHARP KABUSHIKI KAISHA, Sakai, JP;
Abstract
Provided is an electrophotographic photoconductor including an outermost surface layer containing inorganic compound microparticles that have a number mean primary particle diameter of 10-40 nm and are dispersed uniformly into the outermost surface layer at a proportion of 7-18% by mass in the outermost surface layer, wherein in slicing the outermost surface layer in its stacking direction with a thickness of 70 nm, observing a strip-shaped sample piece thus obtained in scanning transmission electron microscopy, converting a cross-sectional image thus obtained to an 8-bit binary image, and observing any 50 regions from regions having a 5 μm×5 μm observation field of view in the binary image, the following formula is met: 0.5≤S/N≤2.0, and wherein a maximum gap region has a size of 1.0 μm or less when represents a space with absence of the inorganic compound microparticles converted to an equivalent circle diameter.