The plasma parameter for fast deposition of highly crystallized microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si) films with low defect density is presented using the high-density and low-temperature microwave plasma (MWP) of a SiH4-H-2 mixture. A very high deposition rate of similar to 65 angstrom/s has been achieved at SiH4 concentration of 67% diluted in H-2 with high Raman crystallinity I-c /I-alpha > 3 and low defect density of 1-2 x 10(16) cm(-3) by adjusting the plasma condition. Contrary to the conventional rf plasma, the defect density of the pc-Si films strongly depend on substrate temperature T-s and it increased with increasing T-s despite T-s below 300 degrees C, suggesting that the real surface temperature at the growing surface was higher than the monitored value. The sufficient supply of deposition precursors such as SiH3 at the growth surface under an appropriate ion bombardment was effective for the fast deposition of highly crystallized mu c-Si films as well as the suppression of the incubation and transition layers at the initial growth stage. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.