Abstract: Raised active regions having faceted semiconductor surfaces are formed on semiconductor fins by selective epitaxy such that the raised active regions are not merged among one another, but are proximal to one another by a distance less than a thickness of a metal semiconductor alloy region to be subsequently formed. A contiguous metal semiconductor alloy region is formed by depositing and reacting a metallic material with the semiconductor material of raised active regions. The contiguous metal semiconductor alloy region is in contact with angled surfaces of the plurality of raised active regions, and can provide a greater contact area and lower parasitic contact resistance than a semiconductor structure including merged semiconductor fins of comparable sizes. Merged fins enable smaller, and/or fewer, contact via structures than a total number of raised active regions can be employed to reduce parasitic capacitance between a gate electrode and the contact via structures.