Optical coherence tomography for quality assessment of embedded microchannels in alumina ceramic

Large-scale and cost-effective manufacturing of ceramic micro devices based on tape stacking requires the development of inspection systems to perform high-resolution in-process quality control of embedded manufactured cavities, metal structures and defects. With an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system operating at 1.3 mu m and a dedicated automated line segmentation algorithm, layer thicknesses can be measured and laser-machined channels can be verified in alumina ceramics embedded at around 100 mu m depth. Monte Carlo simulations are employed to analyze the abilities of OCT in imaging of the embedded channels. The light scattering parameters required as input data for simulations are evaluated from the integrating sphere measurements of collimated and diffuse transmittance spectra using a reconstruction algorithm based on refined diffusion approximation approach. (C)2012 Optical Society of America