How a scanning acoustic microscope operates and scanning acoustic microscope

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method of operating a scanning acoustic microscope, which is particularly an ultrasonic scanning microscope, and in particular, a transducer unit (10) having one or more transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14), each comprising a transducer (20) and a lens (21, 22), scans a sample in the X-Y plane, the transducer unit (10) is moved in the X direction for a linear scan of the sample, after the linear scan of the sample by the transducer unit (10), the transducer unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a displacement increment (U, W), the magnitude of the displacement increment (U, W) in the Y direction of the transducer unit (10) is varied for the scan of the sample, and in particular, after the displacement of the transducer unit (10) in the Y direction, at least one further linear scan of the sample is performed in the Y direction by the transducer unit (10).

Claims

1. A method for operating a scanning acoustic microscope, A method comprising: scanning a sample in the X-Y plane by a transducer unit (10); moving the transducer unit (10) in the X direction for linear scanning of the sample; after linear scanning of the sample by the transducer unit (10), displacing the transducer unit (10) in the Y direction by an increment of displacement; and changing the magnitude of the increment of displacement of the transducer unit (10) in the Y direction during scanning of the entire predetermined scanning area of ​​the sample.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scanning acoustic microscope is provided as an ultrasonic scanning microscope, and / or the converter unit (10) comprises one or more converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) each having one converter and one lens.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the displacement of the converter unit (10) in the Y direction and the linear scanning of the sample in the X direction are performed at least once for each displacement of the converter unit (10) in the Y direction.

4. The converter unit (10) performs multiple linear scans of the sample, and after each linear scan of the sample, the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a small displacement increment (U), and after a predetermined number n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of linear scans of the sample, the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a large displacement increment (W) that is greater than the small displacement increment (U), and / or after the linear scan of the sample, the converter unit The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a large displacement increment (W), and after the displacement of the converter unit due to the large displacement increment (W), the converter unit (10) performs linear scanning of a plurality of n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of the sample, and after each linear scan of the plurality of n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of the sample, the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a small displacement increment (U) smaller than the large displacement increment (W).

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein after linear scanning of the sample, the transducer unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a certain small displacement increment (U), and after a predetermined number n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of linear scans of the sample, the transducer unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a certain large displacement increment (W) that is greater than the small displacement increment (U), and / or after linear scanning of the sample, the transducer unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a certain large displacement increment (W), and after the displacement of the transducer unit by the large displacement increment (W), the transducer unit (10) performs linear scanning of a plurality of n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of the sample, and after each linear scan of a plurality of n (n ≥ 2, 3, ...) of the sample, the transducer unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a certain small displacement increment (U) that is less than the large displacement increment (W).

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) is moved with respect to the sample along a meandering path in the X-Y plane.

7. a.) The sample is scanned using a transducer unit (10) for a scanning acoustic microscope having a plurality of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) each comprising one transducer (20) and one lens (21, 22), wherein at least two of the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) have different focal lengths, or b. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sample is scanned using a converter unit (10) having a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) each comprising one converter (20) and one acoustic lens (21, 22).

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) have the same focal length and / or the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) are arranged adjacent to each other in a linear or rhomboid shape in the Y direction.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) arranged in the Y direction, linear scanning of a plurality of m (m ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) is performed in the X direction by each of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14), the distances of the linear scanning of the plurality of m (m ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) by each of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) are equidistant in the Y direction, and after the linear scanning of the plurality of m (m ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) is performed by the converter unit (10), the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by an increment of displacement corresponding to the product of the equidistant interval of the linear scanning of the plurality of m (m ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) and the number of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) of the converter unit (10).

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) arranged in a front-to-back and / or linear manner relative to each other in the Y direction.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) has a length in the Y direction, and after a plurality of linear scans in the X direction by the converter unit (10), the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by an increment of displacement corresponding to the length of the converter unit (10), and the distance of each of the plurality of linear scans performed before the displacement of the converter unit (10) in the Y direction by an increment of displacement corresponding to the length of the converter unit (10) corresponds to 1 of a natural fraction of the length of the converter unit (10) (length of the converter unit / t: t ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...).

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14).

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) arranged in the Y direction, each of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) has a width in the Y direction, a plurality of linear scans p (p ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) are performed in the X direction, the distance between the linear scans of the plurality of p (p ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...) corresponds to a fraction of the width of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) (width of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) / p: p ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...), and after the execution of the linear scans of the plurality of p (p ≥ 2, 3, 4, ...), the converter unit (10) is displaced in the Y direction by a displacement increment corresponding to a multiple of the width of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14).

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) arranged adjacent to each other and / or linearly in the Y direction, and / or each of the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) has a certain width in the Y direction.

15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the displacement increment (W) in the Y direction of the converter unit (10) is corrected by an allowable error correction value after the converter unit (10) has performed a plurality of linear scans.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein, after the converter unit (10) has performed a plurality of linear scans, the large displacement increment (W) in the Y direction of the converter unit (10) is corrected by an allowable error correction value.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the tolerance error correction value is formed such that the distance in the Y direction from the last linear scan before the large displacement increment (W) of the transducer unit (10) is displaced to the first linear scan after the large displacement increment (W) of the transducer unit (10) is displaced matches the distance in the Y direction of a plurality of linear scans before and / or after the large displacement increment (W) of the transducer unit (10).

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the tolerance correction value is formed such that the distance between all linear scans by the converter unit (10) is constant.

19. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14), and the converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) operate in parallel.

20. The method according to claim 7, wherein two transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having different focal lengths with respect to the X-Y plane are arranged linearly adjacent to each other in the Y direction, or are arranged one behind the other in the X direction, or two transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having different focal lengths with respect to the X-Y plane are arranged offset from each other in the X and Y directions.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein two exclusively transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having different focal lengths with respect to the X-Y plane are arranged adjacent to each other in a straight line in the Y direction, or are arranged one behind the other in the X direction, or two exclusively transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having different focal lengths with respect to the X-Y plane are arranged diagonally offset from each other in the X and Y directions.

22. The converter unit (10) comprises a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) each having a first focal length with respect to the X-Y plane, and a plurality of converter elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) each having a second focal length different from the first focal length. An array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having a first focal length and arranged adjacent to each other in the Y direction, and an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having a second focal length and arranged adjacent to each other in the Y direction, are arranged front to back relative to each other in the X direction. Alternatively, an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the first focal length and arranged adjacent to each other in the Y direction, and an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the second focal length and arranged adjacent to each other in the Y direction, are arranged offset from each other in the X and Y directions. Alternatively, the method according to claim 7, wherein the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the first focal length and the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the second focal length are arranged alternately in the Y direction, front to back.

23. An array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having a first focal length and arranged linearly adjacent to each other in the Y direction, and an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having a second focal length and arranged linearly adjacent to each other in the Y direction, are arranged front to back relative to each other in the X direction. Alternatively, an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the first focal length and arranged linearly adjacent to each other in the Y direction, and an array of transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the second focal length and arranged linearly adjacent to each other in the Y direction, are arranged diagonally offset from each other in the X and Y directions. Alternatively, the method according to claim 22, wherein the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the first focal length and the transducer elements (1, 2, 3, 4, 12, 14) having the second focal length are alternately arranged in a linear fashion in the Y direction.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein the scanning acoustic microscope is provided as an ultrasonic scanning microscope.

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