Patent ID: 7042647

Claim:
A scanned optical system for use in optical probing applications, said scanned optical system enabling high Numerical Aperture and large field-of-view, comprising: a light delivery system and focusing optics, said light delivery system and focusing optics forming an optical column with an optical axis; said light delivery system configured to deliver light from a light source to illuminate a sample (DUT) having a sample surface; said optical column being mounted on an xyz stage configured to scan the optical column across the DUT in the xy plane, said xy plane being parallel to said sample surface and z being perpendicular to said sample surface; a control system operable to move the xyz stage so as to scan the optical column across the DUT; said control system providing said xyz stage with a sufficiently large x-y scan range to provide said focusing optics with a field of view (FOV) of at least 100×100 microns for diffraction limited numerical aperture (NA) as high as 3.0; said light being directed in a light beam substantially parallel to said optical axis.