A Lamb wave lens for acoustic microscopy

In a conventional scanning acoustic microscope the excited leaky modes contribute significantly to the high contrast obtained in the images. However, all such modes exist simultaneously, and the interpretation of the images is not straightforward, especially in layered media. A lens geometry is proposed that can be used with acoustic microscopes to image layered solid structures. This lens can focus the acoustic waves in only one of the Lamb wave modes of the layered solid with a high efficiency. V(Z) curves obtained from this lens are more sensitive to material properties compared to that obtained from conventional lens. Measuring the return signal as a function of frequency results in another characteristic curve, V(f). The Lamb wave lens and the associated characterization methods for the layered structures are described. The results presented show that the Lamb wave lens is at least an order of magnitude more sensitive than the conventional lens and can easily differentiate between a good bond and disbond in a layered structure.