The thin films of CoFe2O4 spinel ferrite were prepared on the substrates of monocrystalline silicon(100) at low temperature by means of a developed citrate processing. According to the AFM observation and XRD studies, several key processing parameters were optimized. In the coating solution, the volume ratio of the mixed solvents water/ethanol, the concentration of citric acid and that of PEG were chosen as 1:8, 0.2 mol/l and 40-80 mg/ml, respectively. The films resulted from the annealing of thus-obtained film precursors at 630-679 degrees C for 1 h possess high quality surface and well-crystallized spinel structure. The methods presented in this paper makes it very convenient to perform substitution of foreign ions.