a balanced brushless linear motor assembly including a stator and a rotor, wherein application of electric current to the rotor causes the rotor to move along a linear path defined by the stator;

wherein the stator includes at least one permanent magnetic member as a part thereof and the rotor includes at least one winding as a part thereof;

an ultrasonic transducer that is designed to emit pulses of acoustic energy through a coupling medium and that is directly driven by the rotor;

a controller that is designed to

(a) cause control currents to be applied to the at least one winding of the rotor, the flow of the control currents through the at least one winding generating a magnetic field that interacts with a magnetic field emitted from the at least one permanent magnetic member to thereby cause the rotor and ultrasonic transducer to move along the linear path, and

(b) cause the ultrasonic transducer to emit pulses of ultrasonic energy at a target at predetermined times to at least partially interrogate a target;

a counterweight that is mounted for movement along a second linear path that is generally parallel to the linear path, the counterweight having generally the same mass as a mass of the ultrasonic transducer and the rotor; and

wherein the scanning acoustic microscope is designed so that, whenever the controller causes the rotor and ultrasonic transducer to move in a given direction along the first linear path, the counterweight is moved in the opposite direction along the second linear path thereby allowing the rotor and ultrasonic transducer to be subject to at least five G of force when accelerated or decelerated while maintaining the viability of data that is generated when the target is interrogated.