Growth defects are present in all PVD hard coatings. They have detrimental influence on their tribological properties (higher sticking of workpiece material, higher friction coefficient, worse corrosion resistance, higher gas permeation). In order to improve the tribological properties of PVD hard coatings it is important to minimize the concentration of growth defects. Conventional TiAlN single layer as well as AlTiN/TiN and TiAlN/CrN nanolayer coatings were deposited on cemented carbide, powder metallurgical high speed steel (ASP30) and cold work tool steel (D2) by magnetron sputtering in the CC800/7 and CC800/9 sinOx ML (CemeCon) deposition systems, respectively. The surface morphology of the coated substrates was examined by scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) in combination with focused ion beam (FIB), and 3D stylus profilometer. By means of 3D-profilometry we performed several measurements and detailed analysis on a series of samples from the several hundred production batches. The influence of growth defects on GDOES (glow-discharge optical emission spectrometry) depth resolution and pitting corrosion was also studied. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.