In this letter we report the selective and alignable deposition of patterned thin-film epitaxial GaAs/GaAlAs devices onto a host substrate such as silicon for low cost, manufacturable hybrid integrated optoelectronic circuits. We use a thin polyimide diaphragm as the transparent transfer medium for these patterned epitaxial devices. Each of these devices or a group of these devices on the polyimide is then optically aligned and selectively deposited onto the host substrate. Using this technique, a light emitting diode 50 × 50 μm in area and 2 μm thick was grown on a GaAs substrate, lifted off, aligned and selectively deposited onto a silicon host substrate, and electrically contacted and tested. Using this method, the sparse distribution of costly photonic devices or the deposition of aligned arrays of devices to fabricate larger arrays without large area growth of photonic devices can be achieved on a variety of smooth host substrates. © 1991 IEEE