Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a metastable form of amorphous carbon with a significant fraction of sp(3) bonding. DLC is a semiconductor having high mechanical hardness, chemical inertness and optical transparency. The films have widespread applications as protective coatings in areas such as magnetic storage disks, optical windows and micro-electromechanical devices (MEMS). To date, such films have been deposited using mass selected ion beams, filtered cathodic vacuum arcs and pulsed laser ablation. These techniques are, however, limited in their areal coverage and throughput. Also, film adhesion to certain substrates, such as soda-lime glass, and the presence of micro-particles are still serious limitations. The primary motivation behind the present work is to develop a large area deposition technique, which produces highly transparent hydrogenated tetrahedral a-C thin films (ta-C:H) that acts as a scratch resistant layer and corrosion barrier on soda lime glass. Large area deposition of DLC, with sp(3) content as high as 80%, directly onto 1.5 m wide glass substrates is reported. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.