silicon nitride is a high temperature material currently under consideration for heat engine and other applications. the objective is to improve the net shape fabrication technology of si3n4 by injection molding. this is to be accomplished by optimizing the process through a series of statistically designed matrix experiments. to provide input to the matrix experiments, a wide range of alternate materials and processing parameters was investigated throughout the whole program. the improvement in the processing is to be demonstrated by a 20 percent increase in strength and a 100 percent increase in the weibull modulus over that of the baseline material. a full characterization of the baseline process was completed. material properties were found to be highly dependent on each step of the process. several important parameters identified thus far are the starting raw materials, sinter/hot isostatic pressing cycle, powder bed, mixing methods, and sintering aid levels