Abstract: Planar silicon device structures are fabricated by refilling grooves etched in an oxide-coated silicon substrate using liquid phase epitaxial growth from a tin melt. Since tin does not wet silicon dioxide, silicon nucleation on the oxide-covered areas of the substrate is precluded. Consequently, epitaxial growth selectively occurs in the grooves, without undesirable silicon growth over the oxide. This avoids the short-circuits and surface nonplanarity resulting from the growth of polycrystalline silicon on the oxide layer covering the unetched areas when vapor phase epitaxial growth is employed.