Title: DETECTION OF SURFACE FLAWS IN SILICON NITR NITRIDE USING ACOUSTIC MICROSCOPY

Abstract:
Silicon nitride is a leading candidate material system for potential use in automotive, industrial, and military applications for its unique high temperature material properties. Todays silicon nitride generally fail from surface defects caused by various pro processing steps. Reference standards with simulated surface holes from 5 to 100 micron diameter size were fabricated in MOR bars, button-head tensil tensile specimens, and circular disks of silicon nitride. Acoustic microscopy detected 10 to 25 micron size holes depending on the surface finish.
(Ref. SXVIII-039-97)

Source: NDE of Ceramics '97 May 4-7, Symposium on Nondestructive Evaluation of Ceramics at the American Ceramic Society 99th Annual Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Buying the Symposium Proceedings from the American Ceramic Society.