Thin silicon films were deposited onto silicon carbide (SiC) substrates at high temperatures using electron beam excited plasma chemical vapour deposition. The film quality was characterised using X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements. Grain size, growth rate and crystal fraction were all seen to improve at the higher deposition temperature. The use of thin film silicon has the potential to reduce the material cost of silicon solar cells. However, the compatibility of the SiC substrates with high temperatures would also allow the use of existing, industrially proven bulk silicon processing techniques, which are incompatible with low-temperature glass, to be used for thin film devices. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.