Abstract
By employing an interference mode, an acoustic microscope has been developed, which can raise the depth resolution about fivefold from the level of conventional models. This enables the individual layers of multilayer structures such as semiconductor devices to be discriminated. Acoustic microscopes are used in various areas including industrial materials and biological studies. This paper deals with their typical applications for observing of microstructural anistropy in plastically deformed zones of materials subjected to tensile stresses, measuring residual thermal stresses generated in joined interfaces between ceramics and metals, measuring the thickness of machining damaged layer, observing rust and dynamically observing of corrosion.
