Synthesis of high-purity, homogeneous ALON materials for the manufacture of transparent ceramic protective elements in the VIS/IR range

Current Barriers

Despite its extraordinary properties, the production and widespread use of ALON present both technical and economic challenges, such as:

• the need for high-purity raw materials, the supply of which is controlled by a few suppliers, all of whom are located outside the European Union.
• the complexity of sintering, as it is essential to obtain very dense samples with porosities below 0.05%, and the limitation on part size;
• the high energy consumption associated with long processing times required to sinter large parts;
• the costly finishing processes required for these materials due to their high hardness.

Furthermore, the production of large ALON parts has a significant and non-linear impact on cost due to diminishing returns and high material waste when an optical defect is detected in them.

Project Proposal

The overall objective of the project is to develop a self-sufficient and cost-effective process for the synthesis, processing, and industrial scaling of transparent aluminum oxynitride (ALON), thereby ensuring domestic production of high-purity raw material and the manufacture of large, high-quality optical components using advanced sintering technology such as Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS).