Highly e-axis oriented zinc oxide, ZnO, thin film has been obtained at a very low pre-heating temperature, 120 degrees C. After depositing all layers, the film is annealed at 350 degrees C, for 5 h. The deposition process is designed to be compatible with silicon/silicon-dioxide substrates, to make piezoelectric coatings for integrated smart sensors. The films are synthesized by the sol-gel method and deposited onto a glass substrate. The deposition solution is prepared by dissolving zinc-acetate 2-hydrate in methanol. To optimize the film quality with respect to c-axis orientation, and surface uniformity, the selected parameters are: pre-heating temperature, spin-coating speed and number of coating layers. The effect of the deposition conditions is studied by applying experimental design and response surface techniques on the characteristic (002) peak, obtained by Xray diffraction analysis. Surface uniformity and grain size are observed by scanning electron microscopy. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.