The application of microwave radiation as the heating source for the processing of glass matrix composites containing metallic particles has been investigated. A borosilicate glass powder was chosen for the matrix. The metal inclusions investigated were molybdenum, tungsten, aluminium. titanium. nickel and iron particles in volume concentration of 10%. The average particle size of primary metallic particles varied between 2 and 50 mum. The microwave heating process was carried out in a self-constructed multimode microwave applicator operating at the 2.45 GHz ISM frequency. For comparison, samples were also made by conventional powder technology and sintering. The microwave- and conventionally-processed samples were characterised in terms of: particle distribution, density and glass/metal particle interfacial characteristics. The microwave-processed samples had densities up to 96% of that of the conventionally-processed samples and were obtained in significantly shorter times (7 min versus similar to7 h). In case of glass/Mo composites, a recently developed computational model based on the OOF finite element code was used in order to calculate the residual thermal stresses in the samples.