ZnO thin films were deposited on various substrates, such as Si-(111), SiO$_2$(5000 $AA$ by thermal CVD)/Si-(100), and SiO$_2$(2000 $AA$ by RF sputtering)/Si-(100). The (002)-orientation, surface morphology and roughness, and electrical resistivity of deposited films were measured and compared in terms of substrate. Surface acoustic wave(SAW) filters with a multilayered configuration of IDT/ZnO/SiO$_2$/Si were also fabricated and the IDT was obtained using a lift-off method. From the frequency-response characteristics of fabricated devices, the insertion loss and side-lobe rejection were estimated. The experimental results showed that the (002)-oriented growth nature of ZnO films, which played a crucial role of determining the characteristic of SAW device, was strong1y dependent upon the SiO$_2$buffer.