An innovative colloid-gel process using inorganic salts as starting materials has been successfully developed for preparing ferroelectric strontium bismuth tantalate (SrBi2Ta2O9) powder. This new technique began with the preparation of a mixture of Ta(OH), colloid with the aqueous solutions of strontium and bismuth cations, followed by the addition of ethylene glycol and citric acid as gel-forming reagents. During the calcination process the fluorite phase was formed as an intermediate that was subsequently converted into the SrBi2Ta2O9 phase. After calcination at 750 degreesC, pure ultrafine SrBi2Ta2O9 polycrystalline powder with a narrow particle size distribution was obtained. The primary particle size of the obtained SrBi2Ta2O9 powder was around 40 nm. In comparison with the solid-state reaction, the newly developed colloid-gel process significantly reduces the heating temperature for synthesizing SrBi2Ta2O9 as well as the particle size of the obtained powder.