US Patent 7947581 - Formation of graphene on silicon substrates

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7947581.html

This patent from Linde AG teaches a technique to grow graphene layers on a silicon substrate. Claim 1 reads:

1. A method of forming a graphene layer on a substrate, comprising

providing the substrate;

depositing a metal carbide layer onto the substrate; and

pulse annealing the metal carbide layer in high vacuum layer to produce the graphene layer, wherein annealing comprises migrating the metallic species of the metal carbide layer toward the vacuum to form a metal rich layer and reforming the carbon atoms of the metal carbide layer into the graphene layer.