Aluminum nitride (AIN) films were reactively deposited on (100) oriented silicon substrates by reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering for different incidence angles and distances between substrate and target. X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to consider the influence of process parameters such as reactive gas flow rate, grazing incidence angle (a), and distance (d) between substrate and target surface on the property of AIN films. XRD results showed that AIN film prepared at a constant distance (d) of 3 cm and an incidence angle of 45 degrees revealed a mixture of AIN (002), (100), and (101) planes, while the film prepared at alpha = 0 degrees revealed a strong AIN (002) orientation which has a perpendicular growth direction to the substrate surface. AFM results showed that AIN film prepared at alpha = 0 degrees exhibited more flat surface morphology than that of film prepared at alpha = 45 degrees. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.