ICAM Scanning Acoustic Microscope

The ICAM scanning acoustic microscope is a high speed, fully digital and integrated system designed for rapid non-destructive inspection of integrated circuit (IC) packages and similar parts. It can be used in development, production and failure analysis situations to give repeatable and detailed information on internal features, showing the presence of manufacturing, processing and in-service defects.

Ultrasonic Sciences has been designing and building digital ultrasonic testing systems for more than 13 years and the ICAM is the product of this combined expertise in mechanical, electronic and software design. Because it incorporates full digital control of all parts of the system, it is simple to operate for repetitive tasks, requiring the minimum of operator skill. At the same time, it has the flexibility to offer very detailed analysis when the situation demands.

Because of its advanced mechanical and data acquisition design, ICAM can inspect IC packages at very high speeds whilst generating real time, high resolution images. Typically for a 25 x 25mm scan area, a speed of up to 15lines per second is achieved - this means that a 250 x 250 pixel scan image can be produced in about 20 seconds. Images at lower resolution can be produced in even less time.

The basic ICAM system is a completely integrated unit, comprising a purpose designed mechanical scanning stage and computer based ultrasonic and data acquisition electronics. A range of high frequency transducers is included, together with a colour printer for hard copy of scan images. The mechanical scanning system is an inherently low vibration unit and does not require a bulky base assembly or heavily damped mountings. This makes it compact and mobile, so that it can be easily moved to different locations in the plant when required.