[en] The fatigue and ageing of metal materials under operation conditions are major concerns in energy production plants. An early and non-destructive diagnostic of surface defects would allow one to carry out relevant preventive maintenance operations without dismantling or prematurely changing healthy components. Nowadays, most of the automated non-destructive testing (NDT) solutions available to detect the surface-breaking defects are based on ultrasound or eddy current techniques. Despite their high sensitivity and spatial resolution, they are unable to meet all the requirements of every real situation. Consequently, in order to supplement the available acoustic and electromagnetic NDT tool-kits, it sounds relevant to evaluate the potential of new techniques to detect micro-cracks on metal surfaces. The aim of this work is the development of microwave methods allowing the detection of surface-breaking defects on metals. In this report, we demonstrate how micro-cracks at the surface of metals can be detected and imaged by using near-field microwave resonators. In particular, we present simulation data and measurement results carried out on mock-ups with EDM rectangular surface notches highlighting the high sensitivity and spatial resolution of the original dual-behavior resonator (DBR) filter probes. (author)