Historic interest and development in epitaxial reactor design have led to reduced thermal stress and slip across wafers. Slip occurs when the thermo-mechanical stress in the silicon wafer exceeds the yield strength of silicon during growth. The stress level depends on the process condition such as deposition temperature and ramping rate. The stress distribution is further affected by the actual contact between the wafer and susceptor pocket. Depending on the manner of wafer support, the contact stress may also become significant in causing slip. In this work, silicon epiwafers have been grown in a vapor phase epitaxial system using a dish-shaped susceptor pocket. The physical contact between wafer and susceptor is explored on a micron scale. It is found that coating nodules on the pocket surface strongly influences the generation of slip. Specifically, the edge slip is closely related to backside wafer damage at discrete contact spots between the wafer and high nodules. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.