Patent ID: 8377796

Claim:
A method of forming a circuit structure, the method comprising: providing a substrate; forming recesses in the substrate, the recesses comprising sidewall and bottom surfaces, and wherein the substrate also comprises non-recessed portions; forming a mask layer over the substrate, the mask layer comprising a dielectric material; patterning the mask layer to form a mask that only covers the non-recessed portions of the substrate so that the recesses are exposed through openings in the mask; forming a buffer/nucleation layer on the sidewall and bottom surfaces of the recesses, a composition of the buffer/nucleation layer being distinguishable from an adjacent material, the adjacent material being adjacent in a direction from the buffer/nucleation layer to the substrate; and growing a III-V compound semiconductor layer from the recesses at least until portions of the III-V compound semiconductor layer grown from the recesses coalesce to form a continuous III-V compound semiconductor layer, wherein the continuous III-V compound semiconductor layer comprises portions over and vertically overlapping the mask.