Stereolithography 3D printing of SiC ceramic with potential for lightweight optical mirror

Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramic is the most prospective candidate material for space-based lightweight optical mirror. Stereolithography 3D printing has been reported to fabricate many kinds of ceramics, showing great potential for fabricating lightweight SiC ceramic optical mirror. In this paper, SiC ceramic was fabricated using stereolithography 3D printing combined with polymer burn-out, pre-sintering, and precursor infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP). The relative density, flexural strength, and microstructure during each step were investigated. The as-prepared lightweight SiC ceramic optical mirror exhibited high accuracy and high quality. Finally, it was proved that stereolithography 3D printing has a great potential for lightweight SiC ceramic optical mirror fabrication.