Amorphous carbon (a-C) films were deposited by an off-plane double bend filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique fitted with a plasma immersion ion implantation system. High resolution XPS measurements showed these films have an sp(3) content of about 60%. Laser-surface acoustic wave measurements have shown such films to have a Young's modulus and density of 3 10 GPa and 2.33 g/cm(3). 1.2 mum thick a-C films were grown and subsequently patterned into 150 mum X 50 mum cantilevers using standard photolithography. Residual stress measurements were obtained from the curvature of bend of the cantilever. An accurate knowledge of the microstructural properties will in turn give accurate modeling results. Simulation results showed that such free-standing cantilevers fabricated with amorphous carbon films have resonant frequency much higher than standard polysilicon cantilevers. As such, free-standing diamond-like amorphous carbon cantilevers had been fabricated. The resonant frequency of these cantilevers was measured by laser vibrometer to be similar to 108 MHz, in very good agreement with simulation results. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.