Improved Signal Detection Sensitivity for High Resolution Imaging in Scanning Acoustic Tomography

Scanning acoustic tomography (SAT) is widely used to detect defects such as voids and delamination in electronic devices. In this article, the authors explain how they improved the spatial resolution and detection sensitivity of SAT by switching from a conventional piezoelectric probe to a capacitive micromachined ultrasound transducer (CMUT) and by using pulse compression signal processing. They also present examples showing how the improvement makes it possible to detect very small defects in multilayer stacks and BGA packages whether in through-transmission or reflection imaging mode.