Abstract In this work, H2, CH4, and O2 are used as gas sources and C3H903B is used as the doping source, microwave plasma chemical vapor deposition and a two-steps deposition process will be applied to the growth of boron-doped diamond on p-type(111) silicon substrate. In this work, nucleation and growth of diamond film have been studied. A series of experiments are focused on the depenence of experimental pressure, temperature, power, dc bias, flow rates of O2, and doping concentration of C3H903B. The samples are examined by SEM, Raman, XRD, FTIR, and I-V. The results show that if nucleation is assisted by a negative dc bias, it can reach high density. The growth of diamond and the boron-doped diamond film is in multi steps. After 90 minutes of growth, the mechanism of deposition will be changed.