Innovative Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition Manufacturing Process for Shaped Silicon Carbide Fibers

Advanced ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) materials are essential for protecting hypersonic vehicles and other aerospace platforms from extreme environments. Next-generation CMCs incorporate SiC fibers due to their excellent high-temperature performance, even in oxidative environments, and the demand for high-quality SiC fibers outpaces their availability.  To meet the growing need for SiC fibers, the ATS team has worked to develop a proof-of-concept laser chemical vapor deposition (LCVD) process for synthesizing short, high-quality SiC fibers for CMCs. This process offers many advantages over traditional fiber manufacturing techniques; it is material agnostic, cost-effective with minimal waste, has a modular design capable of large and small batches, capable of producing fibers with outstanding mechanical and high-temperature properties, and capable of controlled and nearly oxygen free fiber chemistries. Additionally, this process is capable of manufacturing fiber shapes not realizable through traditional fiber manufacturing routes. The ATS team’s capabilities have progressed from growing individual fibers to simultaneously growing over 1,000 fibers at a time. While the LCVD process shows significant promise, it is not currently at the scale necessary to produce meaningful quantities of fiber in a reasonable amount of time.  This DP2 SBIR will develop the technical and scientific capabilities necessary to validate the scalability of the process and its ability to produce shaped fibers at scale. By the conclusion of this SBIR, both the process and fibers, including shaped fibers, will be heavily tested, characterized, validated, and well understood. Additionally, the LCVD fiber process will be scaled to a vetted prototype solution. By carrying out the work proposed here, the ATS team will have developed a novel SiC fiber manufacturing process that is well-positioned to advance toward commercialization and implementation within DoD systems.