Acoustic microscopy acoustic microscope (CSAM), and C-mode scanning acoustic microscope (C-SAM). More recently acoustic microscopes based around picosecond ultrasonics systems have demonstrated acoustic imaging in cells using sub-optical wavelengths working with ultrasonic frequencies into the multi-GHz. Since the vast majority of acoustic microscopes in use today are C-SAM type instruments, this discussion will be limited to these instruments. Ultrasound is broadly defined as any sound having a frequency above 20 kHz, which is approximately the highest frequency that can be detected by the human ear. However, the acoustic microscopes emit ultrasound ranging from 5 MHz to beyond 400 MHz so that micrometre
Direct Stream Digital rate. The output from a DSD recorder is a bitstream. The long-term average of this signal is proportional to the original signal. DSD uses noise shaping techniques to push quantization noise up to inaudible ultrasonic frequencies. In principle, the retention of the bitstream in DSD lets the SACD player use a basic (one-bit) DAC design with a low-order analog filter. The SACD format can deliver a dynamic range of 120 dB from 20 Hz to 20 kHz and an extended frequency response up to 100 kHz—though most current players list an upper limit of 80–90 kHz. Most professional audiologists accept