ABSTRACT One of the drawbacks of Scanning Acoustic Microscopy (SAM) is the amount of time it can take to initially determine the exact gating position within the acoustic waveform (A-scan) necessary to image and inspect a particular interface. A-scans require some interpretation and finding the correct gating position can take many scanning iterations. It is true that once the correct gating location for an IC part has been determined, any number of parts can be rapidly inspected. However, a significant improvement for the IC industry would be a minimization of the time necessary for the initial determination of the SAM parameters for each type of IC part. In this talk, powerful new software that allows the user to perform simulated scanning on an IC part is presented. After doing a single scan in which the waveform is digitized at each (x, y) location and saved to a file, the user can instantly generate A-, B-, and C-scans from any location within the part. This allows the user to rapidly and efficiently identify interfaces of interest and determine the necessary SAM parameters at their desktop. These SAM parameters can then be used for production floor inspection. Results from a plastic package practical application will be shown.