Textiles for the food industry were treated with an original deposition technique based on a combination of Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and Physical Vapor Deposition to obtain nanometer size silver clusters incorporated into a SiOCH matrix. The optimization of plasma deposition parameters (gas mixture, pressure, and power) was focused on textile transparency and antimicrobial properties and was based on the study of both surface and depth composition (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), as well as Transmission Electron Microscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy, SIMS depth profiling and XPS depth profiling on treated glass slides). Deposition conditions were identified in order to obtain a variable and controlled quantity of similar to 10 nm size silver particles at the surface and inside of coatings exhibiting acceptable transparency properties. Microbiological characterization indicated that the surface variable silver content as calculated from XPS and ToF-SIMS data directly influences the level of antimicrobial activity. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.