Patent ID: 7686886

Claim:
A method of epitaxially growing a monocrystalline semiconductor region, comprising: a) lithographically defining a seed structure overlying a surface of a first monocrystalline semiconductor region of a substrate, the seed structure including (i) a support layer extending along the surface in a first lateral direction and a second lateral direction transverse to the first direction, the support layer having a major surface and a plurality of exposed lithographically defined edge surfaces bounding the major surface and extending away from the major surface, wherein an adjacent pair of the edge surfaces are disposed at an angle so as to define a vertex, the seed structure further including (ii) a catalytically active covering layer wetting the support layer and disposed between the surface of the semiconductor region and the support layer, the covering layer having an exposed periphery; and b) then selectively, epitaxially growing a second monocrystalline semiconductor region onto the first monocrystalline semiconductor region where covered by the seed structure by supplying precursor constituent to the seed structure including to the exposed periphery of the covering layer, such that the covering layer adsorbs the precursor constituent through the exposed periphery, the second monocrystalline semiconductor region having edge surfaces which are co-planar with the edge surfaces of the support layer.