Oak Ridge National Laboratory 
KSI SAM-2000 Scanning Acoustic Microscope





Metals and Ceramics Division

 

The Krĉmer Scientific Instruments (KSI) SAM2000 scanning acoustic microscope was recently upgraded to provide a state-of-the-art user interface and new analysis software. The SAM2000 has working frequencies from 100 MHz to 2 GHz, offering resolutions up to 0.4 µm, which is the highest available resolution for commercial scanning acoustic microscopes in the world.

Working frequency (Hz)

100 M

200 M

400 M

1.0 G

2.0 G

Resolution (µm)

8

4

2

0.8

0.4

Max Penetration depth* (µm)

Metals

60~100

40~80

30~60

15~25

2~4

Ceramics

40~80

25~65

20~50

10~20

1~3

*The penetration capability of the acoustic wave depends on material properties.

Scanning acoustic microscopy (SAcM) uses high-frequency acoustic waves to generate visual images of both the surface topography and the underlying structure of materials by detecting reflected echoes, as shown at right. There are two advantages in using SAcM compared to optical or scanning electron microscopy.

  • Non-destructive subsurface features detection lying in the ability of the acoustic waves to penetrate opaque materials.

  • Non-destructive mechanical properties visualization and analysis.

Applications

The SAcM has been widely used in various fields.

  •  Materials science and mechanical engineering, e.g. subsurface damage imaging, coating thickness measurement and delamination detection, material characterization, stress/strain analysis, etc.

  • Semiconductor, e.g. IC packaging inspection, wafer evaluation, etc.

  • Biomedicine, e.g. cells and tissues investigation, etc.

The URL of this page is http://www.html.ornl.gov/mituc/sam2000.htm.
Last modified on December 08, 2003 .

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