Diffusion bonding is a useful joining technique that allows similar and dissimilar materials to be bonded together in near net shape. Although modelling of the diffusion bonding process has been done to predict the bonding parameters needed to achieve parent metal mechanical properties (1,2), the possibility still exists that defects will be present in the bonded plane. There are three classes of defects that can be formed, with voids being the most common and heavily studied ones (3-8). Contamination of the bond line is a serious defect and the effect on NDE interrogation has been discussed previously by the authors (8) and others (3). A "kissing bond" is another type of defect which is difficult to detect and is the focus of this paper. It is the purpose of this work to find an NDE technique that can evaluate the bond strength uniquely, regardless of the class of defect, without any information about the bonding conditions. BACKGROUND