One of the key challenges to advance investigation on graphene uses is to enable access to high-quality uniform graphene layers. A promising route for the production of graphene suitable for electronics is its growth on SiC, which is a wide band-gap semiconductor and on Ge which is an attractive candidate for implementation to Si technology. The successful integration of graphene into microelectronic devices is closely correlated with the development of direct deposition processes, which can provide a uniform, large area and high quality graphene on nonmetallic substrates. In the present work graphene growth is achieved by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method where graphene films are grown by carbon deposition, introduced by a hydrocarbon source, on the Si(0001) side of the SiC wafer and Ge epi-layer on Si substrates. Certain issues on the quality and scaling will be addressed.

Growing  graphene on metal substrates is a widely used method to produce large lateral size graphene layers for a broad range of applications. The challenge here is to increase the grain size and minimize the number of grain boundaries that hinder electrical conduction, while enlarging the surface area of the sample and improving the homogeneity of the film. To foster the research on the properties and applications of graphene, different techniques of graphene transfer onto arbitrary substrates through copper etching and high-speed electrochemical delamination in KCl electrolyte have been developed. To provide information at an atomic scale, samples are characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), micro-Raman spectroscopy, SEM, XPS and others. The transport parameters of the graphene samples are measured with the van der Pauw method at room temperature on the cm-size samples.

One of the key challenges to advance investigation on graphene uses is to enable access to high-quality uniform graphene layers. A promising route for the production of graphene suitable for electronics is its growth on SiC, which is a wide band-gap semiconductor and on Ge which is an attractive candidate for implementation to Si technology. The successful integration of graphene into microelectronic devices is closely correlated with the development of direct deposition processes, which can provide a uniform, large area and high quality graphene on nonmetallic substrates. In the present work graphene growth is achieved by the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method where graphene films are grown by carbon deposition, introduced by a hydrocarbon source, on the Si(0001) side of the SiC wafer and Ge epi-layer on Si substrates. Certain issues on the quality and scaling will be addressed.

Growing  graphene on metal substrates is a widely used method to produce large lateral size graphene layers for a broad range of applications. The challenge here is to increase the grain size and minimize the number of grain boundaries that hinder electrical conduction, while enlarging the surface area of the sample and improving the homogeneity of the film. To foster the research on the properties and applications of graphene, different techniques of graphene transfer onto arbitrary substrates through copper etching and high-speed electrochemical delamination in KCl electrolyte have been developed. To provide information at an atomic scale, samples are characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), micro-Raman spectroscopy, SEM, XPS and others. The transport parameters of the graphene samples are measured with the van der Pauw method at room temperature on the cm-size samples.