Abstract Electric current activated/assisted sintering (ECAS) is a growing class of versatile techniques for sintering particulate materials. Nowadays, most of the scientific attention is focused on pulsed electric current sintering known as spark plasma sintering (SPS). SPS has been successfully applied to electrically conductive and low-electrical-conductivity ceramics although the measured temperature is not directly related to the sintering temperature. Here, we summarize the present status and problems of SPS technology, and introduce our approach to develop SPS. Then, as a future direction, we will demonstrate flash sintering using SPS furnace and conductive powders.