Complex part inspection with eddy current sensors

A system for defect detection comprises; a sensor array having a plurality of sense elements; an encoder to record a spatial position of the sensor array; a memory unit storing a signature library 706 comprising a plurality of defect signatures, each signature having on a first number of channels a defect response as a function of spatial position, the first number being two or more; means to collect measurements 701 from each of the sense elements of the array as a function of spatial position; and a correlation module 703 to correlate as a function of spatial position the measurements from a subset of sense elements with each defect signature in the library, the subset of sense elements has the first number of sense elements. A method of using the system is defined. The sensor array may be an eddy current array or a capacitive sensor array.