In the last twenty years, the ZnO/diamond layered structure for surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have been widely studied and have attracted great attention, due to its advantages of high acoustic velocity, high electromechanical coupling coefficient and high power durability. Distinguished from the conventional single-crystal substrate (such as quartz, lithium niobate), ZnO/diamond layered structure shows dispersive SAW properties, which can be excited by four ways: interdigital transducer (IDT)/ZnO/diamond, IDT/ZnO/shorting metal/diamond, ZnO/IDT/diamond, and shorting metal/ ZnO/IDT/diamond. In this paper, the formulation based on the stiffness matrix method for calculating the effective permittivity of ZnO/diamond layered structure under four excitation conditions is given first. Then, by using this formulation, the SAW properties of the monocrystalline ZnO (002) film on polycrystalline diamond and the polycrystalline ZnO (002) film on polycrystalline diamond are calculated respectively. Based on the results of calculation, the ZnO film thicknesses qualified to design and fabricate SAW device are analyzed in detail. Finally, we discuss the function of diamond film thickness of ZnO/diamond/Si layered structure so as to avoid the influence of the silicon substrate on the SAW properties.