Coating of substrates using hipims

A device for coating a substrate, comprising

• a vacuum chamber,
• at least two magnetron cathodes arranged within said vacuum chamber,
• including a first cathode is provided with a sputtering target of a first metal composition comprising predominantly aluminum, and
• and a second cathode is provided with a sputtering target of a second metal composition comprising predominantly a second metal selected from groups IV A-VI A of the periodic table,
• power supplies connected to said first and second cathodes for applying electrical power to create a plasma sputtering said targets,
• wherein a first electrical power supply is connected to said first cathode, said first electrical power supply being disposed to supply pulsed electrical power according to high power impulse magnetron sputtering with a first peak current density,
• and a second electrical power supply is connected to said second cathode, said second electrical power supply supplying electrical power with a second peak current density lower than said first peak current density,
• a substrate holder arranged in said vacuum chamber for holding said substrate such that particles from said plasma deposit onto said substrate forming a coating.

A coated body comprising

• a substrate,
• at least one coating layer provided on said substrate,
• wherein said coating layer has a composition of (Me1-xAlx)1-ySiyNuG1-u,
• wherein Me is one or more metal selected from groups IV A-VI A of the periodic table or a mixture thereof,
• and wherein the atomic concentrations are such that 0-4≦x≦0.8 and 0≦y≦0.2,
• and wherein G is selected from at least one of B, C, and O,
• and wherein u>0.5, and
• said coating layer having a hardness above 25 GPa.