Patent ID: 8894801

Claim:
A method of fabricating a composite structure, comprising: forming a multi-layer composite lay-up having a fiber reinforced composite resin portion and a metal portion, including forming a composite-to-metal finger joint between the composite resin portion and the metal portion of the lay-up, wherein the composite resin portion comprises laminated plies of fiber reinforced resin, wherein the metal portion consists of metal sheets and an adhesive layer between each of the metal sheets; and forming a transition section between the composite resin portion and the metal portion, the transition section including staggered overlaps between the laminated plies and the metal sheets, the transition section configured such that corresponding first ends of each of the metal sheets abut corresponding second ends of the laminated plies, and the staggered overlaps comprise a waveguide configured to support non-destructive evaluations of a bond quality in the composite structure.