Defect detection of a semiconductor specimen

A computerized method of defect detection of a semiconductor specimen, the method performed by a first processing and memory circuitry (PMC) and comprising:

• obtaining a first image representative of at least a part of the semiconductor specimen, the first image acquired by an inspection tool at a first bit depth;
• converting the first image to a second image with a second bit depth, wherein the second bit depth is a lower bit depth than the first bit depth;
• transmitting the second image to a second PMC operatively connected to the first PMC, wherein the second PMC is configured to perform first defect detection on the second image using a first defect detection algorithm, giving rise to a first set of defect candidates, and send locations of the first set of defect candidates to the first PMC;
• upon receiving the locations from the second PMC, extracting, from the first image, a set of image patches corresponding to the first set of defect candidates based on the locations;
• and
• performing second defect detection on the set of image patches using a second defect detection algorithm, giving rise to a second set of defect candidates.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying a program of instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of defect detection of a semiconductor specimen, the method comprising:

• obtaining a first image representative of at least a part of the semiconductor specimen, the first image acquired by an inspection tool at a first bit depth;
• converting the first image to a second image with a second bit depth, wherein the second bit depth is a lower bit depth than the first bit depth;
• transmitting the second image to a second PMC operatively connected to the first PMC, wherein the second PMC is configured to perform first defect detection on the second image using a first defect detection algorithm, giving rise to a first set of defect candidates, and send locations of the first set of defect candidates to the first PMC;
• upon receiving the locations from the second PMC, extracting, from the first image, a set of image patches corresponding to the first set of defect candidates based on the locations;
• and
• performing second defect detection on the set of image patches using a second defect detection algorithm, giving rise to a second set of defect candidates.