Inspection system for edge and bevel inspection of semiconductor structures

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An inspection system for edge and bevel inspection of a semiconductor structure comprising:

• a plurality of illumination and imaging sensor units configured and operable to define a tangential imaging setup and a dark-field imaging set up, the tangential imaging setup being adapted to collect at least a part of back-light tangential illumination propagating along a tangential illumination path and interacting with a contour region of an edge of the semiconductor structure and generate a tangential image of a contour outline of the contour region, the dark-field imaging setup being adapted to collect scattering of a response of the contour region to dark-field illumination and generate a dark-field image of the contour region, thereby enabling detection of defect data of the edge and enabling to locate defects of the edge.

A method for use in edge and bevel inspection of semiconductor structures, comprising at least one of single-tier and multi-tier semiconductor structures, the method comprising:

• illuminating at least one contour region of an edge portion of the semiconductor structure with illumination propagating towards said contour region along at least first and second differently oriented illumination paths comprising a first, back-light tangential illumination path and at least one second illumination path configured for at least one of dark-field and bright-field imaging modes;
• detecting at least a part of said illumination propagating along the first illumination path towards the contour region, and detecting at least one of scattering and reflection responses of the contour region to the illumination being incident thereon from said at least one second illumination path;
• and generating image data indicative of a contour outline of said at least one contour region and indicative of defect data of said contour region.