Effects of thermal treatment on the structural properties of diamond-like carbon (DU) films were examined. The DLC films were deposited by using a modified filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) deposition system and by varying the negative substrate bias voltage, deposition time, and nitrogen flow rate. Thermal treatment on DLC films was performed using a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process at $600^{circ}C$ for 2min. Raman spectroscopy, x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force microscope (AFM), and surface profiler were used to characterize the I$_{D}$I$_{G}$ intensity ratio, sp$^3$ hybrid carbon fraction, internal stress, and surface roughness. It was found for all the deposited DLC films that the RTA-treatment results in the release of internal compressive stress, while at the same time it leds to the decrease of sp$^3$ fraction and the increase of I$_{D}$I$_{G}$ intensity ratio. It was also suggested that the thermal treatment effect on the structural property of DLC films strongly depends on the diamond-like nature (i.e., sp$^3$ fraction) of as-deposited film.ed film.