We report the successful sputter coating of microfabricated silicon cantilever and tip assemblies with high-quality titanium/titanium nitride (Ti/TiN) thin films using a technique that will be available to many researchers. We demonstrate that the use of pulsed mode reactive de magnetron sputtering, adequate thermal budget, and careful control of a titanium seed layer were the key elements for producing usable coated cantilevers. This coating material takes advantage of the excellent adhesive properties of Ti with silicon and silicon oxide and the intrinsically hard and conductive properties of TiN. Hence, these coated cantilever and tip assemblies have promising advantages over standard cantilever and tip assemblies for many demanding atomic force microscopy applications. We were able to fabricate Ti/TiN coatings with negligible stress-induced bending of the delicate cantilevers. Tests to assess the performance of the Ti/TiN coatings were done on the tip assemblies and on sputter-coated blanket films on thermally oxidized silicon to obtain a measure of the film resistivity and thickness.