High quality diamond-like carbon (DLC) films have been deposited on Si substrate by radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and characterized by several techniques including Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared reflection spectroscopy. Successful fabrication of metal-semiconductor-metal electronic devices based on these films has been achieved. The electrical properties of these devices have been investigated by capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. Several important characteristic parameters such as the built-in potentials between the metals and the DLC films, the relative dielectric constant and the impurity concentration of unintendedly doped DLC film are obtained based on the simulation of measured C-V characteristic curves. Our results suggest many possible potential applications of DLC films in electronic devices. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.