High-power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HPPMS) technology has drawn extensively attention for producing ultra-high dense plasma and high ionization fractions of the sputtered species,depositing dense films with high performance.CrNx films were deposited on the substrates of Si(100) using high-power pulsed unbalanced magnetron sputtering (HPPUMS) technology,and the analyses of XRD and atomic force microscope (AFM) were conducted on the properties of microstructure and surface morphology of CrNx films;the friction coefficient and the adhesion between CrNx film and substrate were measured,respectively.It was found HPPUMS discharge is able to deposit CrNx films with super comprehensive properties:higher adhesive strength between the film and substrate and lower coefficient of friction.Deposition rate of CrNx films,which was tested by interferometry,was about 4.2nm/min at 0.6Pa and the pulse power density up to 6.8kW/cm2 with the pulse repetition frequency of 0.7Hz,which is about 56% of that provided by the mid-frequency magnetron sputtering discharge under the conditions of the same average power output.However,clusters with a dimension of several hundred nanometers were observed on the AFM morphology probably related to high pulse current. High-power pulsed magnetron sputtering (HPPMS) has drawn extensive attention for producing ultra-high dense plasma and high ionization fractions of the sputtered species, depositing dense films with high performance. CrNx films were deposited on the substrates of Si (100) using high-power pulsed unbalanced magnetron sputtering (HPPUMS) technology, and the analyzes of XRD and atomic force microscope (AFM) were conducted on the properties of microstructure and surface morphology of CrNx films; the friction coefficient and the adhesion between CrNx film and substrate were measured, respectively.It was found that HPPUMS discharge is able to deposit CrNx films with super comprehensive properties: higher adhesive strength between the film and substrate and lower coefficient of friction. Deposition rate of CrNx films, which was tested by interferometry, was about 4.2 nm / min at 0.6 Pa and the pulse power density up to 6.8 kW / cm2 with the pulse repetition frequency of 0.7 Hz, which is about 56% of tha t provided by the mid-frequency magnetron sputtering discharge under the conditions of the same average power output.