Sonoscan, Inc. has been granted US Patent #6,895,820 covering the firm's Virtual Rescanning Module (VRM).

The VRM technique permits engineers to acquire and save all of the acoustic echo data from the entire volume of a part such as an integrated circuit (IC) package. The saved digital file can later be rescanned to make acoustic images as though the file were the physical IC package.

Because VRM is widely used to preserve data about parts before they go into production or into testing. After a part has been altered by heat, testing, or other factors, it is no longer 'too late' to examine the part in its original condition.

Specific VRM techniques have already evolved in key production areas. In advanced flip chip production, for example, VRM is used along with the patented Sonoscan method for Frequency Domain Imaging (FDI) to perform very high resolution non-destructive analysis of critical flip chip interfaces. www.sonoscan.com