Patent ID: 7554655

Claim:
A method for inspecting a semiconductor wafer specimen, comprising: brightfield illuminating said semiconductor wafer specimen using brightfield illumination by providing brightfield illumination through an objective configured to focus the brightfield illumination toward the semiconductor wafer specimen, causing brightfield illumination to pass back through the objective after contacting the semiconductor wafer specimen, and sensing brightfield illumination specimen using at least one CCD sensor; and selectively darkfield illuminating said semiconductor wafer specimen using a pumped laser, wherein darkfield illumination received from the semiconductor wafer specimen passes through said objective, and sensing darkfield illumination using the at least one CCD sensor; wherein inspection of the semiconductor wafer specimen using darkfield illumination employs a darkfield illuminator configured to provide darkfield illumination to a reflective surface orientable at different angles to reflect darkfield illumination toward the semiconductor wafer specimen at selectable illumination angles.