Intrinsic hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) thin films were deposited on glass substrates with a different silane concentration (SC = 100 x SiH(4)/(SiH(4) + H(2))). A magnetic mirror was applied geometrically in the RF (13.56 MHz) plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system to increase the deposition rate. The deposition rate using the confined magnetic field (0.72 nm/s with high crystalline volume fraction of 76.6% at SC of 3.5%) was approximately 7 times higher than that using conventional RF-PECVD. High resolution X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were used to examine the structure of the mu c-Si:H thin films, the plasma properties were analyzed by optical emission spectrum (OES). The main reasons for the improved deposition rate and crystallinity of the mu c-Si:H thin films are discussed. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.