Spark plasma sintering, and other advanced sintering technologies track their origins to the early 1900s, but in recent years, they have been gaining strong and rapidly increasing interest for fabrication of high-performance materials with unique properties that cannot be produced by other methods. These materials can be atypical not only in terms of composition, but also as far as microstructure and/or configuration.

Three main categories of advanced sintering technologies (AST)—current-assisted, which includes spark plasma sintering; vacuum-assisted; and electromagnetic radiation-assisted—are primarily used in six sectors: aerospace, automotive, electronics/optoelectronics, energy, mechanical/metallurgical and medical.