Novel composites of $$\upbeta $$ β -SiAlON and radome manufacturing technology developed at ARCI, Hyderabad, for hypervelocity vehicles

Keeping the importance of developing suitable radome (a word derived from radar $$+$$ dome) materials and near-net shape consolidation technique for manufacturing radomes suitable for hypersonic (>mach 5) radar-guided missiles in India, the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, has initiated an in-house R&D programme and successfully developed a complete process know-how for manufacturing defect-free prototype $$\upbeta $$ -SiAlON-based radome structures with all the desired properties. As a part of this R&D programme, total six separate sub-projects mentioned below were undertaken and executed: (i) identification of the best composition out of $$\upbeta $$ - $$\hbox {Si}_6-z\hbox {Al}_z\hbox {O}_z\hbox {N}_8-z$$ (0 $$\le z \le $$ 4.1) solid solution, which possesses a right combination of properties required for radome applications, (ii) designing of an AlN-free precursor mixture for consolidating $$\upbeta $$ - $$\hbox {Si}₄\hbox {Al}₂\hbox {O}₂\hbox {N}₆$$ ceramics by following aqueous colloidal processing routes, (iii) development of a process for passivating water-sensitive AlN powder against hydrolysis, (iv) development of aqueous gelcasting (GC) and hydrolysis-assisted solidification (HAS) powder processing routes for consolidating dense $$\upbeta $$ -SiAlON ceramics using highly solids loaded (>50 vol%) aqueous slurries, (v) development of an hydrolysis-induced aqueous gelcasting (GCHAS) process, a novel near-net-shape consolidation technique, to produce radomes with very high-production yields and (vi) development of an economic route for synthesizing the low-dielectric constant and high strength novel $$\upbeta $$ -SiAlON- $$\hbox {SiO}₂$$ ceramic composites. In this paper, (i) the basis for choosing $$\upbeta $$ -SiAlON-based ceramics for hypervelocity radome applications, and (ii) the various bottle-neck problems faced, while executing this entire R&D work and the way they were overcome have been critically analysed and discussed systematically, while citing all the relevant and important references.