The influence of substrates on the formation of cubic boron nitride(c-BN) thin films was reported. The c-BN thin films were deposited on different substrates with hot-filament-assisted plasma CVD and RF sputter. In the CVD method‚, NH _3‚,B ₂H ₆and H ₂were reacting gases‚ and Si‚,Ni‚,Co‚,stainless steel and other materials were substrates. The experiments showed that the cubic phase content in c-BN thin films was affected by substrates. The film on Ni substrate was the best among all the substrates in the CVD method‚, and its cubic phase content reached over 80%. Our study also found that in the CVD method a Ni interlayer on the Si substrate can improve the quality of the c-BN thin films than directly on Si substrate. In the sputter method‚, the working gas was N ₂and Ar‚, hot-pressed hexagonal boron nitride(h-BN) of 4N purity was used as sputtering target‚, the c-BN thin film with over 90% content of cubic phase was successively deposited on Si substrate. In our research‚, the boron nitride thin films were characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared(FTIR) Spectra and X-ray diffraction.Finally we concluded that for CVD method the cubic phase content and adhesion are highly affected by the crystal lattice mismatch between c-BN and substrate materials; however‚, for sputter method the crystal lattice mismatch between c-BN and substrate materials little affects the quality of c-BN thin films.