An ultrahigh vacuum‐compatible round wafer heater for silicon molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is described. The assembly incorporates a hot tantalum filament and is capable of heating a single 2 in. diameter silicon wafer to a temperature of 1200 °C at a rate of 350 °C/min with a total power dissipation of 600 W. Best results are obtained when a silicon diffuser is positioned between the wafer and the filament. In this case, the observed temperature variation across the wafer is ≤16 °C, and virtually slip‐free epitaxial layers can be grown. The quality of epitaxial layers grown using this heater is, in general, the highest we have yet observed for silicon MBE material, with line dislocation density below 103/cm2.