▎ 摘　　要

NOVELTY - Preparing a semiconductor substrate, comprises: (a) forming a metal film on a front surface of the substrate, where the metal film comprises a front metal film surface, a back metal film surface and a bulk metal region, and the back metal film surface is in contact with the front surface; (b) contacting the front metal film surface with a carbon-containing gas at a temperature sufficient to in-diffuse carbon atoms into the bulk metal region; and (c) precipitating carbon atoms to form a graphene layer between the front surface and the back metal film surface. USE - The method is useful: for preparing a semiconductor substrate with the graphene layer such as a single mono-atomic graphene layer or a graphene bi-layer for forming the multilayer article (all claimed); and in applications such as single molecule detection, ultra fast field effect transistors, hydrogen visualization template for transmission electron microscopy, tunable spintronic devices, bio-electronic devices, ultra-capacitors, and nano-mechanical devices. ADVANTAGE - The method enables: preparation of graphene layers having desired patterns on the major surface of the semiconductor substrate thus depositing the graphene without any layer transfer steps; and formation of large sheets of graphene for transferring large area graphene sheets to large diameter silicon substrates during the fabrication of an electronic device without any film stress, bonding defects, and wrinkles in the graphene film. The graphene: exhibits high thermal conductivity, high mechanical strength, high optical transparency (97%), carrier controlled interband/optical-transition and flexible structure; and can be directly formed on oxidized silicon to provide a unique graphene-structure on silicon-based platform for a wide variety of electronic and sensing applications. DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Preparing a semiconductor substrate comprising two major, generally parallel surfaces including a front surface and a back surface, and a circumferential edge joining the front and surfaces, comprises either: (a) forming a metal film on the front surface of the substrate, where the metal film comprises a front metal film surface, a back metal film surface and a bulk metal region between the front and back metal film surfaces, and the back metal film surface is in contact with the front surface; (b) contacting the front metal film surface with a carbon-containing gas in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature sufficient to in-diffuse carbon atoms into the bulk metal region of the metal film; and (c) precipitating carbon atoms to form a graphene layer between the front surface and the back metal film surface; or (a1) depositing a layer comprising a carbon-rich polymer on the front surface layer of the substrate, (b1) forming the metal film on the carbon-rich polymer layer, where the back metal film surface is in contact with the carbon-rich polymer layer, (c1) heating the semiconductor substrate comprising the carbon-rich polymer layer and the metal film in the presence of hydrogen to a temperature sufficient to degrade the carbon-rich polymer layer, and step (c) as above per se. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is included for a multilayer article comprising: the semiconductor substrate, where a central plane is provided between the front and back surfaces of the substrate; the graphene layer in contact with the front surface of the substrate; and the metal film in contact with the graphene layer.