  A novel Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) was designed with Diamond-Like Carbon
(DLC) electrodes and performance studies were carried out for 384$\,\mathrm{\mu
m}$ gap configuration with a $2\,\mathrm{cm}\times2\,\mathrm{cm}$ prototype.
The use of thin films coated with DLC enables an ultra-low mass design of $<
0.1\%\,X_0$ with up to a four-layer configuration. At the same time, 42% MIP
efficiency, and 180 ps timing resolution per layer were achieved in a
measurement performed under a $1\,\mathrm{MHz/cm^2}$ non-MIP charged particle
beam. In addition, we propose a further improved design for a
$20\,\mathrm{cm}$-scale detector that can achieve 90% four-layer efficiency in
an even higher $4\,\mathrm{MHz/cm^2}$ beam. In this paper, we describe the
detector design, present the results of performance measurements, and
characterize the rate capability of the DLC-based RPCs with a performance
projection for an improved design.
