Method of inspecting a specimen and system thereof

A system to inspect an inspection area of a specimen, the inspection area comprising at least one pattern of interest (PoI), the system comprising an inspection tool unit operatively coupled to a computerized inspection control unit configured to:

• obtain the design data and a test image;
• receive an inspection recipe that specifies an offset between the design data and the test image and a parameter that is based on an imaging condition associated with the inspection area of the specimen and another imaging condition associated with the test image;
• provide local segmentation of at least one inspection PoI in an inspection image captured from the inspection area by the inspection tool unit to obtain inspection structural elements in the at least one inspection PoI by using segmentation configuration data specified in the inspection recipe;
• identify, among the inspection structural elements in the at least one inspection PoI, one or more inspection structural elements corresponding to at least one metrology target to yield one or more target structural elements;
• identify design structural elements corresponding to the one or more target structural elements by using design association data specified in the inspection recipe;
• and
• enable metrology measurements for the one or more target structural elements using the identified design structural elements and the parameter from the inspection recipe.

A non-transitory computer usable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations associated with inspecting an inspection area of a specimen, the inspection area comprising at least one inspection pattern of interest (PoI), the operations comprising:

• obtaining design data informative of design structural elements in a design PoI corresponding to the PoI and an inspection recipe generated using the design data and a test image comprising at least one test PoI of substantially the same design as the at least one PoI, the inspection recipe specifying an offset between the design data and the test image and a parameter that is based on an imaging condition associated with the inspection area of the specimen and another imaging condition associated with the test image;
• providing local segmentation of at least one inspection PoI in an inspection image captured from the inspection area to obtain inspection structural elements in the at least one inspection PoI by using segmentation configuration data specified in the inspection recipe and obtained from global segmentation of the test image captured from the inspection area;
• identifying, among the inspection structural elements in the at least one inspection PoI, one or more inspection structural elements corresponding to at least one metrology target to yield one or more target structural elements;
• identifying design structural elements corresponding to the one or more target structural elements by using design association data specified in the inspection recipe and obtained from associating segmented structural elements in the test PoI with the design structural elements in the design PoI;
• and
• enabling metrology measurements for the one or more target structural elements using the identified design structural elements and the parameter from the inspection recipe.