Reinforced thin-film semiconductor device and methods of making same

A reinforced thin-film device comprising;

• a substrate having a top surface for supporting an epilayer;
• a mask layer patterned with a plurality of nanosize cavities disposed on said substrate to form a needle pad;
• a thin-film of, relative to the substrate, lattice-mismatched semiconductor disposed on said mask layer, wherein said thin-film comprises a plurality of in parallel spaced semiconductor needles of said lattice-mismatched semiconductor embedded in said thin-film, wherein said plurality of semiconductor needles are vertically disposed in the axial direction toward said substrate in said plurality of nanosize cavities of said mask layer;
• and
• a, relative to the substrate, lattice-mismatched semiconductor epilayer provided on said thin-film and supported thereby, wherein the mask layer is in direct contact with the substrate,
• and wherein said epilayer comprises a plurality of isolated islands of at least two different lattice-mismatched semiconductors, wherein each of the two different lattice-mismatched semiconductors comprise semiconductor material which is intentionally mismatched relative to the substrate.