Duringthelastfewdecades,photothermalradiometry(PTR)hasbeengreatlydevelopedandwidelyappliedinthefieldofnondestructivetesting.However,thetraditionalPTRsystememploysanexpensivelock-inamplifiertodetecttheweakphotothermalsignal,whichleadstohighcostandlongtesttime.Inthispaper,afasttransmissionPTRsystembasedonsamplingbyusinganinternalcomputersoundcardwasdevelopedtolowerthesystemcostandshorterthetesttime.Apieceofamorphoussilicon(a:Si)thinfilmsolarcellswithartificialdefectswaspreparedandtestedbythesystem.Theresultsshowthatthesharpeneddefectscanbeidentifiedeasilyandquicklyaccordingtothesignificantpeaksoftheoriginalinfraredsignalsampledbytheinternalcomputersoundcard.Furthermore,moredetaileddefectscanbeinvestigatedbyprocessingtheinfraredsignal.ThesevalidatetheeffectivenessoftheproposedtransmissionPTRsystemasalowcostandefficientnon-destructivetesttechnique.
