A method for depositing fine particles from a suspension on selected regions of a substrate is disclosed. The particles are deposited on selected regions of a clean hydrophobic semiconductor surface that are surrounded by a wetting boundary which includes a mesa formed by etching through a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) film and an underlying buried oxide of an SOI substrate. The process is well suited for the growth of semiconductor nanowires that nucleates from fine particle used as a catalyst.