Carbon nanomaterials including nanocrystalline diamond and graphene films are expected to play a core role in <TEX>$21^{st}$</TEX> century industries due to their amazing physicochemical properties. To achieve their practical utilization and industrialization, the development of their mass production technologies is strongly required. Recently, a surface wave excited plasma (SWP) which is produced using microwaves has been attracting special attentions as a candidate for the mass production technology of carbon nanomaterials. SWP can allow a low-temperature large-area plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD) system. Here, this article introduces the promising SWP-CVD technology. Plasma characteristics in a SWP will be introduced in detail to help understanding how to use and control a SWP as a plasma source for CVD applications.