A system and method can include a laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) in optical communication with a part during manufacturing and a transducer in ultrasonic communication with the part during manufacturing. The system can also include a controller connected to both the LDV and the transducer. The controller may be configured to cause the transducer to vibrate the part during manufacturing at a predetermined frequency and the LDV may be configured to measure one or more mechanical response types of the part during manufacturing based on one or more optical characteristics of a reflected beam. The controller may further be configured to determine whether a defect is present in the part during manufacturing in response to the one or more mechanical response types of the part.

A lithium ion-conductive solid electrolyte including a freestanding inorganic vitreous sheet of sulfide-based lithium ion conducting glass is capable of high performance in a lithium metal battery. Such an electrolyte is also manufacturable, and readily adaptable for battery cell and cell component manufacture, in a cost-effective, scalable manner using an automated machine based system, apparatus and methods based on inline spectrophotometry to assess and inspect the quality of such vitreous solid electrolyte sheets and associated components. Suitable manufacturing methods can involve multi-stage thinning of a sulfide glass preform that includes a first thinning operation that involves applying a compressive force onto the preform to form a glass sheet and a second thinning operation that involves applying a tensile force on the as-formed glass sheet (e.g., drawing the sheet by pulling)

A method of inspecting defects on a transparent substrate may include: selecting a gradient of an illumination optical system so that light incident on the transparent substrate has a first angle; selecting a gradient of a detection optical system so that an optical axis of the detection optical system located over the transparent substrate has a second angle, which is equal to or less than the first angle; adjusting a position of at least one of the illumination optical system, the transparent substrate, and the detection optical system so that a field-of-view of the detection optical system covers a first region where the light meets a first surface of the transparent substrate and does not cover a second region where light meets a second surface of the transparent substrate, the second surface being opposite to the first surface; illuminating the transparent substrate; and detecting light scattered from the transparent substrate.

A lithium ion-conductive solid electrolyte including a freestanding inorganic vitreous sheet of sulfide-based lithium ion conducting glass is capable of high performance in a lithium metal battery by providing a high degree of lithium ion conductivity while being highly resistant to the initiation and/or propagation of lithium dendrites. Such an electrolyte is also itself manufacturable, and readily adaptable for battery cell and cell component manufacture, in a cost-effective, scalable manner. An automated machine based system, apparatus and methods assessing and inspecting the quality of such vitreous solid electrolyte sheets, electrode sub-assemblies and lithium electrode assemblies can be based on spectrophotometry and can be performed inline with fabricating the sheet or web (e.g., inline with drawing of the vitreous Li ion conducting glass) and/or with the manufacturing of associated electrode sub-assemblies and lithium electrode assemblies and battery cells.

A method of inspecting defects of a transparent substrate may include: illuminating a transparent substrate; calculating an incidence angle range of light so that a first region where the light meets a first surface of the transparent substrate and a second region where light meets a second surface being opposite the first surface of the transparent substrate do not overlap each other; adjusting an incidence angle according to the incidence angle range; adjusting a position of a first detector so that a first field-of-view of the first detector covers the first region and does not cover the second region; adjusting a position of a second detector so that a second field-of-view of the second detector covers the second region and does not cover the first region; and obtaining a first image of the first region and a second image of the second region from the first and second detector, respectively.

An optical scanning system includes a radiating source capable of outputting a light beam, a time varying beam reflector that is configured to reflect the light beam through a scan lens towards a transparent sample at an incident angle that is not more than one degree greater or less than Brewster's angle of the transparent sample, and a focusing lens configured to be irradiated by light scattered from the transparent sample at an angle that is normal to the plane of incidence of the moving irradiated spot on the transparent sample. A first portion of the light beam is scattered from a first surface of the transparent sample and a second portion of the light beam is scattered from a second surface of the transparent sample. A spatial filter is configured to block the second portion of the light beam scattered from the second surface of the transparent sample.

An optical scanning system includes a radiating source capable of outputting a light beam, a first time varying beam reflector that is configured to reflect the light beam through a scan lens towards a transparent sample at an incident angle that is not more than one degree greater or less than Brewster's angle of the transparent sample, and a second time varying beam reflector that is configured to reflect the light beam reflected from the transparent sample after passing through a de-scan lens onto a phase retardance detector. The output of the phase retardance detector is usable to determine if a defect is present on the transparent sample. The first time varying beam reflector causes a first phase retardance of the light beam and the second time varying beam reflector causes a second phase retardance of the reflected light beam in the opposite direction of the first phase retardance.

A lithium ion-conductive solid electrolyte including a freestanding inorganic vitreous sheet of sulfide-based lithium ion conducting glass is capable of high performance in a lithium metal battery by providing a high degree of lithium ion conductivity while being highly resistant to the initiation and/or propagation of lithium dendrites. Such an electrolyte is also itself manufacturable, and readily adaptable for battery cell and cell component manufacture, in a cost-effective, scalable manner. An automated machine based system, apparatus and methods assessing and inspecting the quality of such vitreous solid electrolyte sheets, electrode sub-assemblies and lithium electrode assemblies can be based on spectrophotometry and can be performed inline with fabricating the sheet or web (e.g., inline with drawing of the vitreous Li ion conducting glass) and/or with the manufacturing of associated electrode sub-assemblies and lithium electrode assemblies and battery cells.

A lithium ion-conductive solid electrolyte including a freestanding inorganic vitreous sheet of sulfide-based lithium ion conducting glass is capable of high performance in a lithium metal battery. Such an electrolyte is also manufacturable, and readily adaptable for battery cell and cell component manufacture, in a cost-effective, scalable manner using an automated machine based system, apparatus and methods based on inline spectrophotometry to assess and inspect the quality of such vitreous solid electrolyte sheets and associated components. Suitable manufacturing methods can involve providing a sulfur precursor, providing a boron precursor material having lithium as a second constituent, combining the sulfur and boron precursor materials to form a precursor mixture, melting the mixture, and cooling the melt to form a solid lithium ion conducting glass. The glass may have a Li.sup.+ conductivity of at least 10.sup.5 S/cm. The vessels in which the precursor materials are melted may include a secondary container or liner composed of a metal nitride or a metalloid nitride, such as boron nitride, silicon nitride, aluminum nitride, titanium nitride, zirconium nitride and hafnium nitride.

The continuity of a functional layer of a web (32, 60, 78) is assessed by forwarding the web, detecting (42, 63) the presence of the functional layer and a discontinuity and/or a thin region in the functional layer, and generating a signal in response to the discontinuity and/or thin region. The functional layer comprises a detectable component (360) in a thermoplastic composition. The detecting is carried out by a machine vision system capable of detecting the detectable component (360) in the functional layer. The detectable component (360) can be active or passive. Also included are systems for carrying out the process.