US Patent 7922795 - Nanoscale semiconductor membrane

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7922795.html

This patent is from the University of Rochester and includes some broad claims toward ultrathin membranes useful to a variety of devices including electron microscopes, fuel cells, pressure sensors, and DNA sequencing. Claim 1 reads:

1. A nanoscale membrane exposed on opposite sides thereof and having an average thickness of less than about 100 nm, a lateral length to thickness aspect ratio that is more than 10,000 to 1, a surface roughness of less than about 1 nm, and wherein the membrane is formed of a semiconductor material selected from the group of silicon, germanium, silicon or germanium alloys, p-doped silicon or germanium, and n-doped silicon or germanium.