Process for preparing semiconductor wafers with substantially no crystallographic slip

A method for heating a plurality of substrate members formed of a single crystal material with substantially no crustallographic slip in a process for the formation of semiconductor regions by epitaxial growth, said method comprising the steps of:

• placing the substrate members in intimate contact with a susceptor body on one side of the same in a cool wall reaction chamber,
• heating the substrate members and the susceptor body directly and simultaneously in an unfocused, substantially uniform field of radiant heat energy produced by a bank of high intensity radiant heat lamps located on the same side of the susceptor body as the substrate members,
• whereby the substrate members are heated uniformly and without appreciable thermal gradiants by a combination of direct radiation from the heat lamps and heat transfer from the susceptor body, and
• introducing a gaseous reactant into the reaction chamber to effect deposition of a chemical vapor coating on the substrate member.