Patent ID: 7486393

Claim:
An optical inspection system for inspecting a surface of a sample for defects, comprising: a stage for placing the sample thereon; a light source for emitting an incident light beam along an optical axis; an optical system for receiving the incident light beam and including a first set of optical components for separating the incident light beam into a plurality of individual light beams, that are incident on a plurality of scanning spots at different locations on the surface of the sample and a control system for moving the stage relative to the optical axis in a first direction, wherein the first set of optical components are further arranged to cause the individual light beams and their corresponding scanning spots to be deflected along individual scan paths in a second direction that differs from the first direction, the individual scan paths being offset from each other in the first direction so that a scan of a same location of the first direction by the different scanning spots are offset and isolated from each other.