The filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique was employed to deposit magnetic films such as FeNi on silicon substrate. Using the normal cathode design, tetrahedral amorphous carbon and metals films can be deposited. If a magnetic target is used, the arc spot always preferably moves to the edge of the target and then extinguishes. Therefore, the arc is not stable and no film can be deposited. A cathode was designed to obtain stable and continuous arc and uniform erosion pattern. The atomic force microscopy, Grazing X-ray diffraction and vibrating sample magnetometry were used to characterize the morphological, structural and magnetic properties of the FeNi film. When the film deposited at substrate bias of - 100 V, it exhibits a square magnetization-hysteresis loop, the lowest coercivity and the highest saturated magnetization among all the investigated samples, which may be related to its good surface roughness and crystallinity. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.