The bonding wire for semiconductor devices includes a core material of Cu or Cu alloy and a coating layer containing conductive metal other than Cu formed on a surface of the core material. The coating layer has a region containing Ni as a main component on a core material side, and has a region containing Au and Ni on a wire surface side, in a thickness direction of the coating layer, a thickness of the coating layer is 10 nm or more and 130 nm or less, a ratio of a concentration C.sub.Au (mass %) of Au to a concentration C.sub.Ni (mass %) of Ni relative to the entire wire is 0.02<C.sub.Au/C.sub.Ni?0.7, and a concentration of Au at the surface of the wire is 10 atomic % or more and 90 atomic % or less.

A bonding wire includes a core material of Cu or Cu alloy, and a coating layer containing a conductive metal other than Cu on a surface of the core material. In a concentration profile in a depth direction of the wire obtained, an average value of sum of a Pd concentration C.sub.Pd (atomic %) and an Ni concentration C.sub.Ni (atomic %) for measurement points in the coating layer is 50 atomic % or more, an average value of a ratio of C.sub.Pd to C.sub.Ni for measurement points in the coating layer is from 0.2 to 20 and a thickness of the coating layer is from 20 nm to 180 nm. An Au concentration C.sub.Au at a surface of the wire is from 10 atomic % to 85 atomic %. An average size of crystal grains in a circumferential direction of the wire is from 35 nm to 200 nm.

A method and system to develop the age and history of a crack by exposing a specimen or component to varying predetermined temperature range that covers the designated service temperatures and measuring the thickness of the oxide across the specimen along the thickness direction.

To provide a novel Cu bonding wire that achieves a favorable FAB shape and a favorable bondability of the 2nd bonded part, and further achieves favorable bond reliability even in a rigorous high-temperature environment. The bonding wire for semiconductor devices includes: a core material of Cu or Cu alloy; and a coating layer containing conductive metal other than Cu formed on a surface of the core material, wherein the coating layer has a region containing Ni as a main component on a core material side, and has a region containing Au and Ni on a wire surface side, in a thickness direction of the coating layer, a thickness of the coating layer is 10 nm or more and 130 nm or less, a ratio C.sub.Au/C.sub.Ni of a concentration C.sub.Au (mass %) of Au to a concentration C.sub.Ni (mass %) of Ni relative to the entire wire is 0.02 or more and 0.7 or less, a concentration of Au at the surface of the wire is 10 atomic % or more and 90 atomic % or less, and at least one of the following conditions (i) and (ii) is satisfied: (i) a concentration of In relative to the entire wire is 1 ppm by mass or more and 100 ppm by mass or less (ii) a concentration of Ag relative to the entire wire is 1 ppm by mass or more and 500 ppm by mass or less.

An example method includes obtaining one or more three dimensional computer models that model geometric and material properties of a component, and model beam properties of a beam of radiation to be applied to the component; utilizing the one or more three dimensional computer models to obtain simulated radiation imaging data, which includes simulated elastic scattering data, resulting from a simulated application of the beam having the beam properties on a plurality of discretized samples of the component, and which accounts for sequential interactions of rays of the beam with multiple ones of the plurality of discretized samples; obtaining actual radiation imaging data, which includes actual elastic scattering data, of an output beam pattern caused by application of a non-simulated beam of radiation having the beam properties to the component; and performing at least one of: determining whether an anomaly exists in a crystalline structure of the component based a comparison of the simulated elastic scattering data to the actual elastic scattering data; and modifying the actual radiation imaging data based on the simulated elastic scattering data to at least partially remove the actual elastic scattering data from the actual radiation imaging data. A corresponding system is also disclosed.

An X-ray-based test device for a plugging removal effect of a sulfur dissolvent on a sulfur deposition rock sample includes a constant speed and pressure pump, a first intermediate container, a second intermediate container, a first pressure transmitter, a core holder, a second pressure transmitter, a first electric pump, a third intermediate container, a back-pressure valve, a gas flow meter, an H.sub.2S neutralization tank, a second electric pump, a back-pressure transmitter, a confining pressure transmitter, an X-ray generator, an X-ray detector and a thermotank. A sour gas sample is placed in the first intermediate container, and nitrogen is filled in the second intermediate container. The sulfur dissolvent is placed into the third intermediate container. A confining pressure inlet is formed in the core holder. The test device may be used for evaluating the plugging removal effect of the sulfur dissolvent injected into the sulfur deposition rock sample.

This disclosure relates to monitoring and assessing the mechanical stability and fluid accumulation in natural or man-made slopes comprising primarily of unconsolidated material, such as embankments, dams, roads, waste dumps, as well as man-made heaps of bulk materials that may occur in the stockpiling of grains, gravel, stones, sand, coal, cement, fly ash, salts, chemicals, clays, crushed limestone as well as heaps of mining ores, including crushed, milled and/or agglomerated ore, and run-of-mine materials.

There is described a method for inspecting a structure across a cover layer covering the structure. The method generally has emitting a high energy photon beam along a photon path extending across said cover layer and leading to a target point within said structure, resulting in scattering along at least first and second scatter paths originating from said target point and extending across said cover layer and away therefrom, said first and second scatter paths forming a respective angle relative to said cover layer and defining an inspection plane comprising at least the target point; simultaneously detecting a first scatter signal incoming from said first scatter path and detecting a second scatter signal incoming from said second scatter path, and generating first and second values indicative therefrom; comparing said first and second values to one another; and inspecting said structure based on said comparing.

A bonding wire includes a core material of Cu or Cu alloy, and a coating layer containing a conductive metal other than Cu on a surface of the core material. In a concentration profile in a depth direction of the wire obtained, an average value of sum of a Pd concentration C.sub.Pd (atomic %) and an Ni concentration C.sub.Ni (atomic %) for measurement points in the coating layer is 50 atomic % or more, an average value of a ratio of C.sub.Pd to C.sub.Ni for measurement points in the coating layer is from 0.2 to 20 and a thickness of the coating layer is from 20 nm to 180 nm. An Au concentration C.sub.Au at a surface of the wire is from 10 atomic % to 85 atomic %. An average size of crystal grains in a circumferential direction of the wire is from 35 nm to 200 nm.

Method and system for non-intrusive measurement of volume density of a specific phase in a part, comprising: processor producing a volume image of the part, the image being formed by a three-dimensional grid of voxels, the values of which indicate the disposition of the specific phase in the part, processor associating a binary coefficient with each voxel of the volume image, thus constructing an initial three-dimensional matrix representation of binary coefficients representing a presence or absence of the specific phase in zones of the part corresponding to the voxels, processor convoluting the initial matrix representation with a convolution matrix kernel corresponding to a predetermined reference volume, the convolution performed by effecting a composition of three (successive) monodimensional convolutions in three independent directions, thus forming a resultant matrix representation, each resultant coefficient of which represents a volume ratio (the density) of the specific phase in the reference volume.