Patent ID: 7746459

Claim:
A system configured to inspect a wafer, comprising: an illumination subsystem configured to illuminate an area on the wafer by directing light to the wafer at an oblique angle of incidence; a collection subsystem configured to simultaneously collect light scattered from different spots within the illuminated area and to focus the light collected from the different spots to corresponding positions in an image plane, wherein the different spots are spatially separated from each other within the illuminated area on the wafer, and wherein each of the different spots is configured such that an amount of haze collected from each of the different spots is significantly less than an amount of haze associated with the illuminated area on the wafer; and a detection subsystem configured to separately detect the light focused to the corresponding positions in the image plane and to separately generate output responsive to the light focused to the corresponding positions in the image plane, wherein the output can be used to detect defects on the wafer.