Patent ID: 7234354

Claim:
A method of inspecting a component comprising: immersing the component in a coupling medium with a material velocity c w ; immersing an ultrasonic probe comprising at least one transducer in the coupling medium, the ultrasonic probe further comprising a convex lens with an acoustic velocity c L and an acoustic impedance of less than about 2.5×10 6 Rayls; exciting the at least one transducer to produce an ultrasonic pulse directed into the component, wherein said exciting the at least one transducer comprises applying an excitation signal pulse to the at least one transducer at a pulse repetition frequency (prf) of at least about 1000 Hz; generating a plurality of echo signals using the at least one transducer as a receive element; and scanning the component with the ultrasonic probe at a scanning rate equal to the pulse repetition frequency times a scanning increment, wherein said exciting and generating steps are performed at each of a plurality of measurement positions for the ultrasonic probe.