Abstract: As a type of PVD technology,arc ion plating has been greatly developed in the coating field,but the mac-roparticles produced during the depositing process limit its application in the field of nano functional coatings.The arc source is the core component of arc ion coating equipment,and the source of macroparticles,which directly determines the film quality of the coating system.It is expounded the advantages and shortcomings of traditional arc sources,and fo-cused on several kinds of new arc sources mentioned in recent years,and summarized their innovations in arc magnetic field control,auxiliary components,water cooling system and arc initiation device,then discussed the future design of the arc source in this paper.