Ultrasonic scanning acoustic microscopy

Burton, N. J Thaker, D. M., and Tsukamoto, S. (1985). Recent developments in the practical and industrial applications of scanning acoustic microscopy. Ultrasonics Int. 85, 334-8. [199]... 

Tsai, C. S. and Lee, C. C. (1987). Nondestructive imaging and characterization of electronic materials and devices using scanning acoustic microscopy. In Pattern recognition and acoustical imaging (ed. L. A. Ferrari). SPIE 768,260-6. [ 110,202] Tsukahara, Y. and Ohira, K. (1989). Attenuation measurements in polymer films and coatings by ultrasonic spectroscopy. Ultrasonics Int. 89, 924-9. [204]... 

Applications The physical principle of measurement is similar to the scanning acoustic microscopy discussed in the Section 14.23, but applications and the method of data processing are essentially different. Sonic methods were used in the following applications to filled materials the effect of particle size and surface treatment on acoustic emission of filled epoxy, longitudinal velocity measurement of tungsten filled epoxy, and in-line ultrasonic measurement of fillers during extrusion. Numerous parameters related to fillers can be characterized by this non-destructive method. 

We used 900-MHz scanning acoustic microscopy to assess the acoustic impedance with a micrometer resolution. Acoustic microscopy measures the amphtude of a high frequency ultrasonic pulse reflected from the surface of a materM. The microscope is calibrated with a set of materials which have... 

Evans et al. (2005) recently reported significant improvements in the scanning acoustic microscopy technique as well as in the extension of ultrasonic reflectometry to the... 

A wide-field pulse scanning acoustic microscope (WFPAM) was used in the reflection mode at the driving frequencies of / = 25 — 50 — 100 MHz to measure the local values of ultrasonic velocities and elastic moduli (the microacoustic technique) and to visualize the bulk microstructure of a specimen (scanning acoustic microscopy). The method makes it possible to measure the elastic characteristics of small specimens and inclusions [26,27]. 

This article is presented with the view to clarify whether scanning acoustic microscopy, which is one of the more advanced ultrasonic imaging technologies, can be applied to nanoscaled elec-trochemically deposited thin film systems (e.g., electroless deposition of ultrathin metal film systems). 

There was, however, one topic which was not included in the first edition, which has undergone substantial development in the intervening years. It could have been foreseen in 1986 a paper was presented at the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium entitled Ultrasonic pin scanning microscope a new approach to ultrasonic microscopy (Zieniuk and Latuszek 1986,1987). With the advent of atomic force microscopy, it proved possible to combine the nanometre-scale spatial resolution of scanning probe microscopy with the sensitivity to mechanical properties of acoustic microscopy. The technique became known as ultrasonic force microscopy, and has been joined by cognate techniques such as atomic force acoustic microscopy, scanning local-acceleration microscopy, and heterodyne force microscopy. 

When the first edition was published in 1992, the resolution of the acoustic microscope techniques used at the time was controlled by the wavelength. In practice the frequency-dependent attenuation of the acoustic wave in the coupling fluid sets a lower limit to the wavelength, and therefore to the resolution, of about 1 pm for routine applications. Since then scanning probe techniques with nanometre scale resolution have been developed along the lines of the atomic force microscope. This has resulted in the development of the ultrasonic force microscopy techniques, in which the sample is excited by... 

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