NOVELTY - A wear resistant ceramic coating (I) of amorphous, conductive transition metal nitride(s) is applied at room temperature to a substrate.    USE - (I) is useful for use in gears, spark plugs, molds, plumbing fixtures, eyeglass frames, cutting drilling or writing instruments, kitchen utensils, jewelry, bearings, bushings, electrical devices, semiconductors, engine components, toys, packaging, optical instruments, fuel cells, recording media, implantable medical devices such as stents, ventricular assist devices, pumps, impellers, balloons, diaphragms, volume displacement chambers, plastic tubes, catheters, occluders, bearing components, soft tissue implants, valves, shunts, pacemakers, defibrillators, cardioverters, electrodes, neural stimulators, filters, grafts, contraceptives, sensors, transducers, needles, tubes, clips, surgical staples, prostheses and electro-surgical blades.    ADVANTAGE - The coating can be biocompatible, flexible, radio-opaque, resist diffusion wear and corrosion, hydrophobic, hydrophilic, adhere to many types of materials, sterilized, chemically inert and stable.    DETAILED DESCRIPTION - INDEPENDENT CLAIMS are included for the following:    (a) as above where the substrate is not deforming during coating and is for use in an abrasive environment;    (b) as above where the substrate is a semiconductor material of an integrated circuit and the coating increases the conductivity and reduces diffusion of the material;    (c) as above, (a) or (b) where the substrate is a thermally sensitive magnetic material or has other properties that are not damaged by applying the coating;    (d) an analog audio playback head, a cooking container, a plastic gear, a razor blade or a spark plug coated as above;    (e) modification of above method or (c) where the coating is biocompatible rather than wear resistant;    (f) as (e) and the coating is applied to non-biomaterials of an implantable device;    (g) applying a biocompatible coating to a diffusion barrier for a medical device at room temperature;    (h) a diffusion barrier for an implantable device has an amorphous biocompatible coating applied at room temperature applied to one side of a membrane; and    (i) use of (h) to prevent fluid exchange between implanted device and surrounding tissue;    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The drawing shows a coating apparatus    stainless steel chamber (10)    evacuation port (14)    gas port (16)    cathode (18)    anode (20)    ion flux (22)    titanium nitride (24)    titanium nitride sputtered flux (26)    base substrate (30)