Highly (0 0 0 2) oriented ZnO thin films were synthesized on the Al/Si (10 0) substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electronic micro-spectra (SEM), spreading resistance profile (SRP) and second ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) were used to determine the structural and electrical properties of ZnO/Al/Si. The results indicated that ZnO epilayers were highly c-axis oriented and that the surface of the ZnO was very clean and smooth. The Al/Si (10 0) substrate is a very suitable substrate for growing the ZnO thin films. There was a sharp transitional region between the ZnO thin films and Al membrane. Based on the prepared ZnO thin films, Schottky diodes were successfully fabricated by Standard IC technique. Gold Schottky contact on n-type ZnO showed -0.014 mu A leakage current to 1 V reverse bias, and ideality factor is 1.5. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.