A home-made electron source assisted medium-frequency (MF) magnetron sputteringsystem was used to deposit thick CrN films on silicon and tungsten carbide substrates atvarious nitrogen flow rates with a fixed total pressure (0.3 Pa) and MF power (11.2 kW). Resultfrom scanning electron microscopy showed that the deposited CrN films have clear columnar structure,and X-ray diffraction revealed a preferred orientation of CrN (200) for samples prepared ata rate of N_2/(N_2+Ar) below 60%, whereas those prepared at higher N_2/(N_2+Ar) rate are dominatedby Cr_2N. Deposition rates up to 12.5μm/h were achieved and the hardness of the CrNcoatings were in a range of 11 GPa to 18 GPa. A home-made electron source assisted medium-frequency (MF) magnetron sputtering system was used to deposit thick CrN films on silicon and tungsten carbide substrates atvarious nitrogen flow rates with a fixed total pressure (0.3 Pa) and MF power (11.2 kW). Resultfromfrom scanning electron microscopy showed that the deposited CrN films have a clear columnar structure, and X-ray diffraction revealed a preferred orientation of CrN (200) for samples prepared at a rate of N_2 / (N_2 + Ar) below 60% N_2 / (N_2 + Ar) rates are dominated by Cr_2N. Deposition rates up to 12.5μm / h were achieved and the hardness of the CrNcoatings were in a range of 11 GPa to 18 GPa.