Miniaturization of the plasma results in the generation of a high density plasma even at atmospheric pressure with a low input energy. The novel microplasma CVD technology uses a miniaturized inductively coupled plasma generator for low temperature and ambient pressure nanomaterial processing. As examples, carbon nanotubes can be prepared without a heater; metallic nanoparticles can be deposited directly on polymer substrates. In addition, microplasma CVD can also be applied to advanced manufacturing applications for MEMS devices such as the inner wall coating of micro tubes and capillaries, and mask-less direct patterning on the micrometer scale.