In various embodiments methods for manufacturing low-cost wide band gap semiconductor devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes providing SiC substrate, etching the substrate to form patterned trenches from the defined patterned openings, removing the hard mask using a chemical process, cleaning the substrate with the patterned trenches, performing a buffer epitaxy on the substrate to form a uniform single crystal layer over the patterned trenches to create a plurality of micro voids, performing another epitaxy on the substrate using a fast epitaxial growth process to provide an active device epitaxial layer with high quality suitable to fabricate SiC devices, and after fabrication of the SiC devices, severing the two epitaxial layers with the device layer at the plurality of micro voids. Other embodiments are described and claimed.