ABSTRACT In order to study the influence of interface structure and periods on strain rate sensitivity of nanoscale multilayers, the electron beam evaporation coating technique is used to deposit Cu/Ni nanoscale multilayers of different period (Λ=4nm, 12nm, 20nm) on the Si substrate, the magnetron sputtering coating technique is used to deposit Cu/Nb nanoscale multilayers of different period (Λ=5nm, 10nm, 20nm) on the Si substrate. The Cu/Ni nanoscale multilayers samples have the annealing treatment under 200℃ and 400℃ vacuum condition for 4 hours and the Cu/Nb nanoscale multilayers samples have the annealing treatment under 200℃, 400℃ and 600℃ vacuum condition for 4 hours. The X-ray diffiraction and the tran mission electron microscope have used to characterize the structure of Cu/Ni and Cu/Nb nanoscale multilayers, the hardness is measured by nano-indentation techniques under different loading strain rate (0.005s-1, 0.01s-1, 0.05s-1, 0.2s-1). Results indicate that the strain rate sensitivity is influenced by the interface structure and grain size, increase of the incoherent interface density and grain size result in the decrease of strain rate sensitivity. With the increase of period, incoherent interface density and grain size of Cu/Ni nanoscale multilayers increase, strain rate sensitivity m decrease. With the increase of period, grain size of Cu/Ni nanoscale multilayers increase but incoherent interface density decrease, strain rate sensitivity m remain unchange. With the increase of annealing temperature, a downward trend of Cu/Ni and Cu/Nb nanoscale multilayers is observed, this is caused by increase of incoherent interface density and grain size.