Ceramic laminates with strong interfaces between layers are considered a very promising material for different engineering applications because of the potential for increasing fracture toughness by designing high residual compressive and low residual tensile stresses in separate layers. In this work, Si3N4/Si3N4-TiN ceramic laminates with strong interfaces were manufactured by rolling and hot pressing techniques. The investigation of their mechanical properties has shown that the increase in apparent fracture toughness can be achieved for the Si3N4/Si3N4-20 wt.%TiN composite, while further increase of TiN content in the layers with residual tensile stresses lead to a formation of multiple cracks, and as a result, a significant decrease in the mechanical performance of the composites. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to measure the frequency shift across the Si3N4/Si3N4-20 wt.%TiN laminate. These preliminary Raman results can be useful for further analysis of residual stress distribution in the laminate. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.