The thin film growth on particles by the rotating cylindrical plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD) reactor has been analyzed for several process variables numerically based on the assumption of uniform electron concentration and energy in the PCVD reactor. As the rotation speed of the plasma reactor increases, the number of particles falling down in the gas phase increases and the total surface area of the particles available for the SiHx deposition increases and the film growth rate increases. As the particle concentration per unit axial length of the cylinder decreases, or as the particle diameter decreases, the SiHx concentration increases and the thin film on the particles grows more quickly. The variation of the thin film thickness on the particles averaged for the process conditions considered in this study is within +/- 6%. On the basis of this analysis, we can propose that the rotating cylindrical PCVD, reactor can be used for uniform and dense coating onto the particles and these results can be used as a basis to design the PCVD reactor for preparing thin films of high quality. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.