Data acquisition system design for acoustic microscopy

Abstract

Conventional acoustic microscopes suffer from the complexity and low speed of their scanning mechanisms. The frame rates of these instruments are low, while their cost are high. In this work, a data acquisition system for acquiring raster image data at precise positions was designed for an acoustic microscope which uses a high speed, simple, and hence low cost scanning mechanism. The design is based on a data acquisition integrated circuit which is specifically designed to be used in this system. The implementation was done in sucha way that the system can be mounted to a standard personal computer. It is possible to obtain acoustical images on the monitor of the personal computer at rates as high as 50 lines per second, using this system.