SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin films were prepared on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by metalorganic decomposition method. The grain growth behaviors of SBT films under conventional furnace annealing (CFA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) processing as functions of annealing temperature (T) and time (t) were investigated systematically. The grain size distribution with CFA and RTA basically conforms to Gaussian distribution, whereas the films annealed by RTA show higher nucleation rate than by CFA. Different grain growth kinetics of the films annealed at 750degreesC under CFA and RTA with varied anneal time was characterized. In Arrhenius curves, there were two distinct temperature regions corresponding to different growth activation energies. The value of growth activation energy under CFA is smaller than that under RTA. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.