Carbon nitride (CNx) film is a material that may successfully compete with DLC coatings, which have high hardness, high wear resistance and a low friction coefficient. Carbon nitride film was prepared oil silicon substrate by Close Field UnBalanced Magnetron (CFUBM) sputtering with a graphite target and using nitrogen-argon mixture gas. Parameters were obtained oil the deposition rate and investigated effect of total working pressure. The characteristic of the carbon nitride films was analyzed by Raman spectroscopy, energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The tribological properties are also investigated by hardness measurement. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.