Under atmospheric pressure, apparently homogeneous and stable plasma can be generated from insulator barrier rf plasma generators each of which has an rf powered cathode and a grounded anode covered with a dielectric insulating material. In order to characterize the generating plasma under atmospheric pressure, some basic characteristic have been evaluated by the Langmuire probe method as well as by optical emission spectroscopy. From the result of plasma characteristics, the generated plasma was verified to be nonequilibrium; T(electron)>T(excitation)>T(gas). High rate Si(100) etching (($1.5{mu}m$/min) were achieved by using He plasma containing a small amount of $CF_4$.