Zinc oxide thin films were prepared by the RF magnetron sputtering using a gas-timing technique whereby the flow of argon into the sputtering chamber was controlled by an on–off sequence. With this technique, polycrystalline ZnO thin films on glass substrates have been achieved without any thermal treatment of the substrate. In addition, the RF power and the gas-timing sequence can be fine-tuned to produce the hexagonal structure of ZnO thin films. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements confirm a (0 0 2) plane oriented wurtzite structure ZnO thin films. The optimized conditions for this hexagonal structure are an RF power of 30 W and an on–off gas-timing sequence of 50:2 s. The root mean square surface roughness of ZnO thin films measured by atomic force microscopy are in the range of 6.4–11.5 nm. The optical transmittance of ZnO thin films is over 85% in the visible range.