Abstract: Silicon nitride is a kind of ceramic materials with excellent properties and it is an ideal material in the use of high temperature structures and high speed cutting tools. In recent years, silicon nitride sintered by microwave sintering has been attracted by more and more attention with the development of microwave technology. In the paper, the research status of silicon nitride ceramic materials sintered by conventional and microwave sintering was introduced. Microstructure and mechanical properties of silicon nitride fabricated by various sintering technologies were compared. The advantages of silicon nitride sintered by microwave sintering were concluded. Finally, several problems of microwave sintering of silicon nitride needed solved in the further research were proposed.

Key words: silicon nitride ceramic;conventional sintering;microwave sintering