Care Areas for Improved Electron Beam Defect Detection

Use of care areas in scanning electron microscopes or other review tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput. A care area is received at a controller of a scanning electron microscope from, for example, an inspector tool. The inspector tool may be a broad band plasma tool. The care area is applied to a field of view of a scanning electron microscope image to identify at least one area of interest. Defects are detected only within the area of interest using the scanning electron microscope. The care areas can be design-based or some other type of care area. Use of care areas in SEM tools can provide improved sensitivity and throughput.