Non-destructive acoustic defect detection in drug tablets.

For physical defect detection in drug tablets, a non-destructive and non-contact technique based on air coupled excitation and interferometric detection is presented. Physical properties and mechanical integrity of drug tablets can often affect their therapeutic and structural functions. The monitoring for defects and the characterization of tablet mechanical properties therefore have been of practical interest for solid oral dosage forms. The presented monitoring approach is based on the analysis of the transient vibrational responses of an acoustically excited tablet in both in temporal and spectral domains. The pulsed acoustic field exciting the tablet is generated by an air-coupled transducer. Using a laser vibrometer, the out-of-plane vibrational transient response of the tablet is detected and acquired in a non-contact manner. The physical state of the tablet is evaluated based on the spectral properties of these transient responses. In the current study, the effectiveness of three types of simple similarity measures is evaluated for their potential uses as defect detection norms, and for their potential use in quantifying the extent of tablet defect is discussed. It is found that these quantities can not only be used for identification of defective tablets, but could also provide a measure for the extent of the damage.