Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is widely used for surface modification of polymer films. In this paper, DBD characteristics under bipolar repetitive frequency nanosecond pulse in atmospheric air are studied and surface properties of polyethylene terephthalate films under homogeneous DBD and filamentary DBD modification are compared through scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and dielectric test equipment. It is found that the discharge is homogeneous when gap spacing d is less than 1.2 mm and filamentary when d is within the range of 3.0 mm to 5.8 mm. SEM pictures reveal that films under homogeneous DBD present a smooth surface while intensive "gully-like" etches appear on the surface of the films under filamentary DBD, which can result in local insulation defects and is disadvantageous to surface modification. It is found from the XPS analysis that a number of oxygen-containing polar groups are introduced onto the surface of the film modified by homogeneous DBD compared with the untreated one. Experimental results for dielectric properties indicate that the three parameters: relative dielectric constant epsilon(r), dielectric loss tangent tan delta and breakdown voltages V-b are all changed in different degree after surface modification. And possible reason for the phenomenon is discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.