Highly c-axis oriented GaN films were deposited on Cu coated glass substrates using electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PEMOCVD). In-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to systematically analyze the influence of TMGa flux on the crystalline quality of the GaN films. GaN films with strong c-axis preferred orientation were achieved under the optimal TMGa flux of 1.4 sccm. Moreover, a strong near band edge (NBE) emission peak located at 354 nm was observed in the room temperature PL spectrum for the optimized GaN sample. The GaN/Cu/glass structure shows great potential for application in large area low cost GaN-based LED devices. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.