Abstract: Herein, we addressed the optimization of film growth conditions of the field enhanced high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) reactor.The influence of the deposition conditions, including but not limited to the pressure, target-substrate distance and pulse width/frequency, on the substrate ion current was investigated with scanning electron microscope and oscilloscope.The results show that the growth conditions all have a major impact.For example, the average substrate ion current changed in an increase-leveloff manner with an increase of the pressure at a fixed target voltage, but decreased with an increase of the target-substrate distance; as the pulse frequency increased, it varied in a decrease-constant mode; the average ion current at a pulse-width of 150 μs was higher than that at 200 μs.The dense, compact vanadium coatings with fairly strong interfacial adhesion were grown by field-enhanced HiPIMS under the moderate synthesis conditions.