Patent ID: 8537349

Claim:
A method for monitoring time-varying defect classification performance comprising: receiving one or more signals indicative of one or more properties of at least a first sample and a second sample from one or more scanning inspection tools; determining populations of one or more defect types for at least the first sample and the second sample according to an application of one or more classification rules to the one or more signals received from the one or more scanning inspection tools; determining populations of the one or more defect types for at least the first sample and the second sample using one or more high-resolution inspection tools; and computing a relative stability between populations of one or more defect types for at least the first sample and the second sample determined from application of one or more classification rules applied to one or more signals received from the one or more scanning inspection tools and populations of the one or more defect types for at least the first sample and the second sample determined using the one or more high-resolution inspection tools with a computing device.