The aim of this work was to compare different plasma PVD processes in respect to their plasma properties in dependence on the process parameters. The processes under investigation were reactive d.c. pulsed magnetron sputtering magnetically assisted, arc source ion, plating, reactive multi plasma supported d.c. magnetron sputtering and reactive low voltage ion plating. The experiments were carried out in specially designed plants under variable vacuum and plasma conditions. The plasma properties, like ion mass, ion energy distribution, ion and electron densities of the different processes were investigated by mass spectroscopy with additional energy distribution analysis (PPM421-Inficon) and a Langmuir probe system (Smart Probe-Scientific Systems). The magnetically forced and medium frequency pulsed biased d.c. magnetron sputter deposition variants, showed a relatively large amount of single and double charged positive ions with kinetic energies up to 55 and 95 eV, as consequence of the applied modifications. The arc source process, even when performed at high pressures of approximately 10(-1) mbar, showed a remarkable amount of ions with energies up to 75 eV. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.