Patent ID: 7752913
Filing Date: 2010-07-13
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for detecting discontinuities in a material region, comprising: deploying a probe in a desired configuration relative to the material region; activating a plurality of ultrasonic transducer elements of the probe to beam a defocused sound field into the material region, each ultrasonic transducer element being electronically controlled to achieve one of a desired angle and a desired range of angles of irradiation of the material region; conducting in parallel a plurality of received signals reflected from the material region to a corresponding plurality of evaluation modules, each evaluation module evaluating a portion of the received signals corresponding to the one of a desired angle and a desired range of angles of irradiation of a corresponding one of the ultrasonic transducer elements; and analyzing data assembled by the plurality of evaluation modules to detect discontinuities in the material region.