The homoepitaxial growth of 6H- and 4H-SiC on on-axis substrates has been studied in order to demonstrate the growth of thick, mirror-like epitaxial layers without other polytype inclusions and basal plane dislocations. The study was done in a hot wall reactor using standard precursors silane and ethylene with hydrogen chloride (HCl) addition. The main important process parameters were studied, in particular deposition temperature, and precursor ratios such as C/Si, Cl/Si and Si/H-2. The addition of chlorine in the precursor mixture was found to be the key parameter to grow layers at high rate with morphology and thickness similar to epilayers deposited on commonly used off-axis substrates. Two different process conditions were found allowing growth of low-doped (in the low 10(14)cm(-3) range) 100-mu m-thick epitaxial layers at a growth rate of 25 mu m/h, 8 times higher than what is achieved without HCl addition. A high concentration of SiCl2 in the gas phase obtained by high Cl/Si and Si/C ratios was fundamental to achieve these results. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.