A new technique has been developed for the growth of epitaxial silicon layers thin enough to be used as active regions of highly scaled transistors. The method, referred to as rapid thermal vapor phase epitaxy, is an extension of standard dichlorosilane vapor phase epitaxy (VPE) to an appropriate time/temperature regime. To do this unique wafer heating and cooling arrangements have been developed and combined with a high‐vacuum/low‐temperature growth environment. The films grown with this technique are selective without the addition of HCl for thicknesses below 1500 Å. X‐ray and electron channeling results indicate that they are single crystal.