In this work, we have developed a reduced pressure chemical vapor deposition (RP-CVD) epitaxial process to grow strain-balanced Ge/Si(0.4)Ge(0.6) multilayers on 200 mm diameter Si(1 0 0) substrates, via an intermediate relaxed Si(0.2)Ge(0.8)/Ge buffer. The results obtained indicate that with proper selection of the epitaxial growth conditions, strain-balanced multilayered heterostructures can be produced with the precise Si(0.4)Ge(0.6) alloy content and control of the strained epilayer thicknesses to within a few monolayers. XTEM analysis clearly resolved very abrupt B.VGe/Si(0.4)Ge(0.6) heterointerfaces and the sample surfaces were seen, by AFM, to be very smooth with an RMS surface roughness below 1.5 nm. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.