ZnO films with c-axis (0002) orientation have been grown on SiO2/Si substrates with an Al2O3 buffer layer by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Crystalline structures of the films were investigated by X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The center frequency of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) device with a 4.8 mu m thick Al2O3 buffer layer was measured to be about 408 MHz, which was much higher than that (265 MHz) of ZnO/SiO2/Si structure and approaches that (435 MHz) of ZnO/sapphire. It is a possible way as an alternative for the sapphire substrate for the high frequency SAW device applications, and is also useful to integrate the semiconductor and high frequency SAW devices on the same Si substrate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.