A new concept of epitaxy named microchannel epitaxy (NICE) is presented. In NICE, lattice information is transferred through narrow microchannels while the transfer of defect information is prevented by the presence of amorphous film at the epitaxial layer-substrate interface. Two types of MCE, vertical and horizontal MCEs, are demonstrated. In the present article, a special focus is given on the horizontal MCE, which we call simply MCE. MCE is composed of selective area epitaxy in the narrow microchannel and successive epitaxial lateral growth. It was demonstrated that flat MCE layers have been successfully obtained for GaAs and InP on Si substrates. Although dislocations propagate through the microchannel into the grown layer, wide dislocation-free regions have been obtained outside this dislocated area. MCE with high width-to-thickness ratio is successfully achieved by molecular beam epitaxy by sending molecular beams with a low angle to the substrate surface. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.