The CrAlN films were deposited on silicon and stainless steel substrates by unbalanced magnetron sputtering system. The influence of substrate bias on deposition rate, composition, structure, morphology and properties of the CrAlN films was investigated. The results showed that, with the increase of the substrate bias voltage, the deposition rate decreased accompanied by a change of the preferred orientation of the CrAlN film from (220) to (200). The grain size and the average surface roughness of the CrAlN films declined as the bias voltage increases above -100 V. The morphology of the films changed from obviously columnar to dense glass-like structure with the increase of the bias voltage from -50 to -250 V. Meanwhile, the films deposited at moderate bias voltage had better mechanical and tribological properties, while the films deposited at higher bias voltage showed better corrosion resistance. It was found that the corrosion resistance improvement was not only attributed to the low pinhole density of the film, but also to chemical composition of films. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.