The production costs of refractory materials, composites and some intermetallic ternary compounds by traditional and conventional industrial methods that in which the because of high temperature furnaces requirements and time consuming methods are very high. However, the self-propagation high-temperature synthesis (SHS) as a promising, economical and alternative route can be used to produce these kinds of materials. The SHS process is a kind of controlled combustion synthesis and in which wide range of unique materials can be produced with high exothermic reactions between powder compounds. On the other word, the SHS process is a self-energy consume process. In the SHS process, the generated heat of raw materials is utilized to progressive of reaction. Also, mechanical activation can be used to eliminate some parameters such as additives, to optimize the physical and mechanical properties of products, to increase the activity of raw materials, and to improve the SHS process. In the mechanical activated SHS process, the effective parameters of mechanical activation such as the temperature, the milling time, the weight and the type of balls and others have great effects on the process. Al 2 O 3 -SiC composite is on of the ceramic materials that can be fabricated by the SHS process. Because of some features such as mechanical, thermal and tribological properties, this composite is an attractive candidate for cutting tools, abrasive materials and high temperature applications. Therefore, in this study, Al 2 O 3 -SiC powder composite has been produced by the self-propagation high-temperature synthesis (SHS), using Al, SiO 2 , and C powders as raw materials. In this work, in order to eliminate the additives such as KNO 3 and polyvinyl alcohol, the raw powders have been mechanically activated. Because of some problems concerning the mechanical activation of aluminum and carbon powders, only SiO 2 powder has been mechanically activated. The stoichiometry ratio of SiO 2 , Al and C powders was selected as 3:4:3. In this study, also, the effect of the molar ratio of carbon as well as mechanical activation has been investigated. The effect of some parameters such as the mechanical activation time and carbon content on the products of SHS process has been investigated via XRD, SEM and thermal analysis of combustion front temperature. The results of XRD showed that by the mechanical activation of about 15-30min and in the 5 molar ratio of carbon, Al 2 O 3 -SiC powder composite can be produced by SHS, without any other phases or raw materials. However, at the low molar ratio of carbon and the short times of mechanical activation, Si as a result of SiO 2 decomposition has been detectable in the products. On the other hand, with increasing the carbon content up to higher than the stoichiometry level and activation time of about 30min, Al 2 OC phase has bee appeared in the products. Moreover, SEM results of products showed that with increasing the activation time of 5 molar ratio-carbon samples, the difference in the particle sizes decreased and the elements distribution improved. Also, the maximum combustion front temperature can be controlled by activation time and carbon molar ratio. This parameter is an important value for the formation of desirable phase in the final product. Keywords: self-propagation high-temperature synthesis (SHS), mechanical activation, Al 2 O 3 -SiC composite, powder, planetary ball mill