Charged particle beam substrate inspection using both vector and raster scanning

A substrate inspection tool, comprising:

• multiple charged particle beam columns, ones of said columns being configured to produce a charged particle beam, different ones of said beams targeting different corresponding portions of the substrate;
• one or more beam controllers configured to:
• receive image data from said columns,
• control said columns to image the substrate, including substrate locations identified as care-areas by said identify action, at a low resolution using scanning of said beams in a predefined regular pattern across the substrate,
• identify one or more care-areas on the substrate with which at least one associated defect database is populated in at least partial dependence on image data from said low resolution scanning, and
• image the substrate at a higher resolution using scanning of said beams in a raster-like pattern across said corresponding care-areas, while substantially skipping non-care-areas,
• wherein different ones of said beam controllers differently and simultaneously control different ones of said beams to perform said high resolution imaging.