Patent ID: 7239389

Claim:
Apparatus for inspection of a surface, comprising: optics adapted to adjust a polarization of an irradiating beam incident on the surface; a bright field detector and a respective bright field analyzer, the bright field detector positioned and adapted to generate bright field signals in response to light specularly reflected from the surface and received via the bright field analyzer; a plurality of gray field detectors, each adapted and positioned to generate gray field signals in response to light reflected from the surface within a first angular region and received via a gray field analyzer associated with the gray field detectors; one or more dark field detectors, each adapted and positioned to generate dark field signals in response to light reflected from the surface within a second angular region and received via one or more respective dark field analyzers; and a controller adapted to receive the bright field signals, the gray field signals and the dark field signals and to determine therefrom optimized settings for one or more of the bright field detector, the plurality of gray field detectors and the one or more dark field detectors and each of the respective analyzers therefor and to control scanning of the surface using said optimized settings.