The microstructure and chemical bonding of DLC films prepared by plasma assisted chemical vapor deposition on acrylic rubber (ACM) are studied in this paper. The temperature variation produced by the ion impingement during plasma cleaning and subsequent film deposition was used to modify the film microstructure by controlling the different degrees of strain applied to the substrate. The film microstructure is studied by top view and cross sectional SEM. The observed patch sizes are correlated with the variation of temperature that occurred during deposition. Finally, the chemical bonding of the samples is studied by Raman spectroscopy. All the samples show similar spectra regardless the bias voltage used. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.