The present apparatus has a movable table with apertures therein. In each aperture there is loaded a carrier device and each carrier holds a substrate to be coated. The carriers are advanced in a step-like fashion to a loading position under a vertical hollow cylinder. When a carrier is in the loading position, a piston is moved upward, passing through the aperture, pushing the carrier into the hollow cylinder. Each carrier has an O-ring on its periphery and the O-ring is squeezed against the cylinder wall to form a seal. Each carrier pushes against the one above it to advance a column of carriers upward in the hollow cylinder. In this way, the carriers, and the substrates they hold, pass through the hollow cylinder. Along the cylinder there are vacuum stations which act to pump down and degas the substrates. The degassed substrates eventually emerge from the upper end of the cylinder into a vacuum chamber, whereat they are coated by sputtering, or the like. The vacuum level in the coating chamber is not as low as the vacuum level at the vacuum stations along the cylinder. Accordingly, gasses in the coating chamber tend to try to escape into the vertical cylinder but are stopped by the O-ring seals on the carriers. Hence the coating chamber is not contaminated. The substrates are transmitted through the coating chamber, coated, and withdrawn therefrom through a second hollow cylinder.

The apparatus comprises an endless tunnel having a wall provided with openings giving access to processing chambers in a locked chamber which has a panel sealing the apparatus from the external environment. A conveyor which follows a closed path is arranged in the tunnel and is provided with seats for containers with articles to be processed and transport means for introducing articles carried by the conveyor into positions opposite to a chamber into a respective chamber. The apparatus has structure by which the environments in the tunnel and in each of the chambers can be controlled. The chambers can each be sealed from the tunnel in a vacuum-tight manner. By means of this apparatus articles, which are screened from the surroundings in a vacuum-tight manner, can be subjected in a controlled environment to a variety of processing steps.

Improvements in the apparatus for forming a functional deposited film by means of plasma chemical vapor deposition comprising a deposition chamber having a film forming space which is sealed and formed by a surrounding wall functioning as a cathode, an upper wall and a bottom wall, which contains a means for holding a cylindrical substrate functioning as an anode in the film forming space and which is provided with a film forming raw material gas supplying means, a means for impressing a discharging power between said cathode and said anode and a vacumming means, that the length L of said cathode and the interval d between the inside face of said cathode and the surface of said anode is so designed as to satisfy the equation: 5.ltoreq.L/d.ltoreq.40. According to this improved apparatus, a desired light receiving memer, even if it is of a large square, which is excellent in both homogeneity in the layer quality and uniformity in layer thickness can be stably and effectively prepared at a high deposition speed.

A method for forming a film is carried out by a film forming apparatus in which two cylindrical discharge electrodes are arranged opposite to each other at an inner wall and at an outer wall of an annular reaction chamber. A plurality of cylindrical substrates on which film is to be formed are arranged along the circumference in the region surrounded by the discharge electrodes. The substrate revolves about its own axis and additionally the substrate rotates with a platform. An electric power of 200 W is applied to the discharge electrode of the inner wall by an electric power supply having a frequency of 231 KHz, for example. An electric power of 600 W is applied to the discharge electrode at the outer wall by an electric power supply having a frequency of 400 KHz, for example. A reaction gas mainly in the form of SiH.sub.4 gas is introduced into the reaction chamber and the pressure in the reaction chamber is held at about 0.5 to 2.0 Torr. In this manner, the reaction gas is decomposed and an amorphous silicon film is formed on the outer cylindrical surface of the cylindrical substrates.

An apparatus for manufacturing photosensitive amorphous silicon objects comprises a pair of coaxial cylindrical electrodes inside a reaction tank of a plasma CVD device. A plurality of cylindrical substrates of an electrically conductive material disposed between these electrodes. A source gas is injected into the reaction tank through a plurality of inlets evenly spaced on the outer peripheral wall so that films of uniform quality can be produced efficiently.