The full-color electroluminescence (EL) display has not yet been commercialized due to lack of good blue or white phosphors. The traditional EL host matrices

such as Ⅱ-Ⅳ sulphides or ternary compounds

have a difficulty of charge compensation when they are doped with rare-earth ions

which will lead unexpected defect energy levels and.lower luminescence efficiency. The biggest challenge today is to find new EL materials to produce multi- and full-color EL display panels. In this paper

high quality AIN thin films doped with TbF

3

were prepared by radio frequency magnetron reaction sputtering.High pure Al metal and TbF

3

slice were used as target materials and N

2

Ar as sputting gases with total pressure 1Pa and 20/80 ratio of N

2

to Ar. The influence of preparation conditions on photoluminescence brightness of the AIN: TbF

3

thin film was studied and the photoluminescence brightness improved with increasing substrate temperature. The optimal concentration of Tb

3+

in AIN: TbF

3

thin film is 4.0mol%. Electroluminescence has a similar dependence on the concentration of Tb

3+

and substrate temperature. The characteristic luminescence of Tb

3+

ion was obtained in AIN: TbF

3

thin film electroluminescence device prepared with 600℃ substrate temperature and 4.0mol% concentration of TbF

3

. The new material is provided for EL and which is the first report to our knowledge.