Apparatus is provided comprising a signal processor that receives signaling containing information about an acoustic signal swept and sensed over a frequency range in relation to a pipe; and determines information about the structure of the pipe based at least partly on two or more sub-frequency ranges that form part of the frequency range in the signaling received. The signal processor also receives the acoustic signal being transmitted to the pipe and corresponding signaling in the two or more sub-frequency ranges containing information about reflections of the acoustic signal back from the pipe; and determines information about the structure of the pipe based at least partly on a coherent mixing of the acoustic signal and the corresponding signaling in the two or more sub-frequency ranges using a coherent acoustic tomography technique. Alternatively, the signal processor also receives associated signaling in the two or more sub-frequency ranges containing information about associated resonance in a liner of a wall of the pipe and determines information about the liner of the wall of the pipe, based at least partly on the two or more sub-frequency ranges.

Disclosed is a method of determining a characteristic of a measurement intermediate layer (220) in a multilayer structure (200) using an ultrasonic transducer (100), wherein the multilayer structure (200) includes a first layer (210), a measurement intermediate layer (220) and a third layer (230) in series abutment. The method comprises transmitting a measurement ultrasonic signal into the first layer (210) towards the measurement intermediate layer (22)0, measuring a measurement reflection of the measurement ultrasonic signal from the multilayer structure (200), determining, using the measurement reflection, a measured frequency response of the measurement intermediate layer (220), determining a plurality of modelled frequency responses of the measurement intermediate layer (220), comparing the measured frequency response to the plurality of modelled frequency responses, and determining the characteristic of the measurement intermediate layer (220) based on the comparison of the measured frequency response and the plurality of modelled frequency responses.

The disclosure relates to a measurement of the wall thickness of samples such as pipes, containers or panels in which the interior or underside is inaccessible and to a measurement of the layer thickness of coatings or linings of the samples. Disclosed are special measuring arrangements using ultrasonic transmitters and ultrasonic receivers with pitch-catch and pulse-echo configurations, and the associated method for determining the wall thickness without prior knowledge of the sound velocity in the sample. Measuring individual layer thicknesses of a multilayered system without prior knowledge of their sound velocities is also disclosed. The method and the measuring arrangement allow the wall thickness to be measured independently of the knowledge of the sound velocity of the sample. This reduces the measurement uncertainty for the wall thickness and inner diameter of the pipe and thus reduces the measurement uncertainty for a clamp-on ultrasonic flow meter.

An ultrasonic method and system for simultaneously measuring lubrication film thickness and liner wear of sliding bearings. The method includes: installing an ultrasonic sensor on a bearing bush; sending, by a processor, signals to an ultrasonic pulser-receiver to generate voltage pulses to excite the ultrasonic sensor to generate ultrasonic pulses; collecting an echo signal of an unworn liner-air interface as a reference signal B.sub.a(f); collecting an echo signal of worn liner-lubrication film interface as to-be-measured signal B.sub.ow(f); obtaining an amplitude spectrum |B.sub.a(f)| and a phase spectrum Φ.sub.B.sub.aof B.sub.a(f), an amplitude spectrum |B.sub.ow(f)| and a phase spectrum Φ.sub.B.sub.ow(f) of B.sub.ow(f) by FFT; calculating an amplitude spectrum |R.sub.w(f)|, and a phase spectrum Φ.sub.R.sub.w(f) of a reflection coefficient; based on |R.sub.w(f)|, calculating lubrication film thickness d via a resonance model or a spring model; and based on Φ.sub.R.sub.w(f), calculating liner worn thickness via wear model under different film thicknesses.

Provided is a thickness measurement device, including: an ultrasonic transmitter configured to transmit ultrasonic waves to a measurement object; an ultrasonic receiver configured to receive the ultrasonic waves reflected by the measurement object; a first extraction unit configured to extract a first reflected wave reflected by a first surface in the measurement object; a second extraction unit configured to extract a plurality of candidates for a second reflected wave reflected by a second surface in the measurement object; a matching degree calculation unit configured to calculate a matching degree between the first reflected wave and each of the plurality of candidates, for the each of the plurality of candidates; a candidate determination unit configured to determine, from the plurality of candidates, a candidate having the largest matching degree as the second reflected wave; and a thickness calculation unit configured to calculate a thickness of the measurement object.

A system includes an inspection robot comprising a plurality of sensor sleds; a plurality of ultra-sonic (UT) sensors; a couplant chamber mounted to each of the plurality of sleds, each couplant chamber comprising: a cone, the cone comprising a cone tip portion at an inspection surface end of the cone; a sensor mounting end opposite the cone tip portion; a couplant entry fluidly coupled to the cone at a position between the cone tip portion and the sensor mounting end; and wherein each of the UT sensors is mounted to the sensor mounting end of one of the couplant chambers.

Provided is a semiconductor fabrication facility including a chamber, a gas supply configured to provide reaction gas to the chamber, a plurality of vacuum pumps respectively configured to pump the reaction gas from the chamber, an exhaust apparatus that is connected to the plurality of vacuum pumps and configured to purify the reaction gas, an exhausting line between the exhaust apparatus and the plurality of vacuum pumps, a thickness detection apparatus connected to the exhausting line and configured to detect a thickness of a byproduct layer in the exhausting line, and a processor connected to the thickness detection apparatus and configured to display preventive maintenance of the exhausting line based on the thickness of the byproduct layer being greater than a threshold value.

Methods and systems for monitoring film thickness using a sensor assembly include a process chamber having a chamber body, a substrate support disposed in the chamber body, a lid disposed over the chamber body, and a sensor assembly coupled to the chamber body at a lower portion of the sensor assembly. The sensor assembly is coupled to the lid at an upper portion of the sensor assembly. The sensor assembly includes one or more apertures disposed through one or more sides of the sensor assembly, and the one or more sensors are disposed in the sensor assembly through the one or more of the apertures.

An ultrasonic measurement method includes irradiating an object to be measured with an ultrasonic wave, acquiring a reflection wave from the object, calculating at a processor an acoustic impedance in a depth direction of the object from the reflection wave, and estimating and outputting a thickness of the object based upon an inflection point determined by second-order differentiation of the acoustic impedance.

Methods of performing a plurality of operations within a region of a part utilizing an end effector of a robot and robots that perform the methods are disclosed herein. The methods include collecting a spatial representation of the part and aligning a predetermined raster scan pattern for movement of the end effector relative to the part with the spatial representation of the part. The methods also include defining a plurality of normality vectors for the part at a plurality of predetermined operation locations for operation of the end effector. The methods further include moving the end effector relative to the part and along the predetermined raster scan pattern. The methods also include orienting the end effector such that an operation device of the end effector faces toward each operation location along a corresponding normality vector and executing a corresponding operation of the plurality of operations with the operation device.