The PVD technology is well suited to realize new and advanced coating concepts like gradient coatings, metastable coatings, multicomponent coatings, multilayer or superlattice coatings. Among these coating concepts the multilayer coatings seem to be the most promising concept because it meets many requirements (e.g. multifunctional character, moderate residual stresses, good adherence to metallic substrates, proper hardness to toughness ratio and low friction coefficients) for a composite exposed to complex wear conditions. Further the concept allows metastable and multicomponent materials to be introduced in a graded multilayer arrangement. By this way different layer concepts can be realized simultaneously. A functional and a structural design, taking into account the material selection for the individual layers, the adjustment of the interface volume and constitution and the optimization of the individual layer sequence and thickness, allows a tailoring of properties and performance. Covalent or ionic materials like B 4C, SiC, Si 3N 4 or Al 2O 3 can be introduced as intermediate layers in the multilayer arrangement, raising hardness and high temperature strength without reducing adherence or toughness of the coating. New results concerning constitution, properties and application characteristics for multilayer coatings mainly based on TiC/TiN are presented.