NOVELTY - Making thin film crystalline semiconductor substrate, comprises: providing reusable doped crystalline semiconductor template; forming porous semiconductor sacrificial release layer on front side of reusable crystalline semiconductor template; epitaxially depositing thin film semiconductor substrate conformally to sacrificial release layer; releasing thin film semiconductor substrate from reusable semiconductor template by separation at porous semiconductor layer; and epitaxially depositing thickening layer of semiconductor material on front side of template.    USE - The method is useful for: making thin film crystalline semiconductor substrate used for fabrication of a solar cell; and smoothing a wafer surface (all claimed).    ADVANTAGE - The method: extends the reusable life and reduces the amortized cost of a substrate or template; and provides conversion of a low quality starting surface into an improved quality starting surface of a silicon wafer.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - Making a thin film crystalline semiconductor substrate, comprises: providing a reusable doped crystalline semiconductor template; forming a porous semiconductor sacrificial release layer on front side of the reusable crystalline semiconductor template; epitaxially depositing a thin film semiconductor substrate conformally to the sacrificial release layer; releasing the thin film semiconductor substrate from the reusable semiconductor template by separation at the porous semiconductor layer; and epitaxially depositing a thickening layer of semiconductor material on the front side of the template, where the thickening layer is a like material and have a like polarity as the template. An INDEPENDENT CLAIM is also included for smoothing a wafer surface, comprising: performing a saw damage removal etch on a doped wafer sliced from an ingot; and epitaxially depositing a planarizing layer of semiconductor material on the wafer, where the planarizing layer is a like material and having a like polarity as the wafer.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure shows a schematic view of the formation of surface features on a reusable semiconductor template.    Starting wafer (100)    Hard mask layer silicon di-oxide (102)    Small pyramidal structures (110)    Large inverted pyramidal structures (112)    Ridges (113)