Designing plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) reactors to coatlarge-area glass plates (~1 m2) for flat panel display or solarcell manufacturing raises challenging issues in physics and chemistry as wellas mechanical, thermal, and electrical engineering, and material science. Insuch reactive glow discharge plasma slabs, excited at RF frequency (from13.56 MHz up to ~100 MHz), the thin-film deposition uniformity isdetermined by the gas flow distribution, as well as the RF voltagedistribution along the electrodes, and by local plasma perturbations at thereactor boundaries. All these aspects can be approached by analytical andnumerical modelling. Moreover, the film properties are largely determined bythe plasma chemistry involving the neutral radicals contributing to filmgrowth, the effect of ion bombardment, and the formation and trapping of dusttriggered by homogeneous nucleation. This paper will review progress in thisfield, with particular emphasis on modelling developments.