Aluminum nitride (AlN) thin films have been deposited on Au electrodes by using reactive RF magnetron sputtering method in a gas mixture of Ar and $N_2$ at different substrate temperature. It was found that substrate temperature was varied in the range up to $400^{circ}C$, highly c-axis oriented film can be obtained at $300^{circ}C$ with full width at half maximum (FWHM) $3.1^{circ}$. Increase in surface roughness from 3.8 nm to 5.9 nm found to be associated with increase in grain size, with substrate temperature; however, the AlN film fabricated at $400^{circ}C$ exhibited a granular type of structure with non-uniform grains. The Al 2p and N 1s peak in the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectrum confirmed the formation of Al-N bonds. The XPS spectrum also indicated the presence of oxynitrides and oxides, resulting from the presence of residual oxygen in the vacuum chamber. It is concluded that the AlN film deposited at substrate temperature of $300^{circ}C$ exhibited the most desirable properties for the application of high-frequency surface acoustic devices.