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Abstract: To compensate for bismuth loss that occurred during the film deposition process, Bi1.5Zn1.0Nb1.5O7 (BZN) thin films were deposited at room temperature from the ceramic targets containing various excess amounts of bismuth (0–20mol%) on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by using RF magnetron sputtering technique. The effect of bismuth excess content on the microstructure and electrical properties of BZN thin films was studied. The microstructure and chemical states of the thin films were studied by SEM and XPS. EPMA was employed to assess the film stoichiometry. The X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the BZN thin films exhibit the amorphous structure in nature. An appropriate amount of excess bismuth improves the dielectric and electrical properties of BZN thin films, while too much excess bismuth leads to deterioration of the properties. BZN thin film with 5mol% excess bismuth exhibits a dielectric constant of 61 with a loss of 0.4% at 10kHz and leakage current of 7.26×10−7 A/cm2 at an electric field of 200kV/cm. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]