FePt thin films have been deposited on Si substrate with a TiN buffer layer. The effects of deposition temperature and the quenching rate on the magnetic properties and microstructure of the FePt/TiN films have been investigated. Out-of-plane anisotropy can be achieved for the film deposited at room temperature followed by annealing at 600 degrees C and quenching in air. It is observed that a small fraction of L1(0)-FePt in the room temperature deposited film is well-aligned in the perpendicular direction which is due to the large surface energy of the TiN buffer layer, which contracts the lattice of L1(0)-FePt during the ordering process. However, by increasing the deposition temperature from room temperature to 450 degrees C, both the L1(0)-ordering parameter and the inplane anisotropy can be enhanced. The microstructure and phase structural results indicate that a high quenching rate is beneficial to refine the FePt grains despite the high deposition temperature. The highest in-plane coercivity (915.6 kA/m) is obtained by depositing at 300 degrees C and quenching in air. However, when the film is deposited at 300 degrees C followed by quenching in ice water, the average FePt grain size dramatically decreases to 22 nm and the in-plane coercivity still maintains at about 875.8 kA/m. The results indicate that the high rate quenching can effectively separate the grains and result in the high coercivity due to the reduced exchange coupling effect. (C) 2016 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.