Coatings with micro- or nano-scaled structure are always fabricated by various techniques to fulfill the requirements of unique performances according to special working conditions. The differences in preparation techniques always result in large differences in their properties, even for the same coating materials. High-performance coatings are solely up to surface integrity, morphology, microstructure, stress state, interfacial structure, cohesion and adhesion that are all strongly affected by preparation processes. Therefore, how to take advantage of the numerous deposition techniques to design a right preparation process to produce coatings of high performance to meet the demands is the real question. Deep oscillation magnetron sputtering (DOMS) is a novel high-power impulse magnetron sputtering, which has become a hotspot in tribological hard coatings around world. Hence, we summarized designs, preparation and application of typical high-performance coatings, such as flexible hard coatings, superhard yet tough coatings deposited by the combined DOMS.

High-performance coatings Coating designs Preparation techniques Durability Evaluation methodology