Bismuth titanate thin films have been prepared on silicon substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition method. After rapid thermal annealing (RTA), Bi2Ti2O7 thin films have showed strong (111) orientation. The dielectric constant and the dielectric loss of Bi2Ti2O7 are 118 and 0.07 at 100 kHz, respectively. For the Bi2Ti2O7 films with 0.8 mum thickness annealed at 560degreesC, their leakage current density is 4.06 x 10(-7) A/cm(2) at an applied voltage of 15 V. Reactive ion etching of Bi2Ti2O7 thin films using a SF6, CHF3 and SF6/CHF3 gas mixture, respectively, were studied, for the first time, by changing the etching gas composition, pressure, flow rate and power in a parallel-plate reactive ion etcher. The thickness of Bi2Ti2O7 thin film was measured by using a Dektak 11 step-meter. And the uniformity of the thickness of the thin film on a three-inche silicon plate was also determined. The surface morphology and quality of Bi2Ti2O7 thin films were studied by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The images show that the plane of the Bi2Ti2O7 thin film is very smooth. That is very important for this film to be used in devices. Also, we have obviously observed the anisotropy of Bi2Ti2O7 film in AFM images for the first time, which show that the micro-crystal grains of Bi2Ti2O7 film are rectangular in shape after RTA. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.