US Patent 11415526 Multi-controller inspection system

An inspection system is disclosed. The inspection system includes a shared memory configured to receive image data from a defect inspection tool and a controller communicatively coupled to the shared memory. The controller includes a host image module configured to apply one or more general-purpose defect-inspection algorithms to the image data using central-processing unit (CPU) architectures, a results module configured to generate inspection data for defects identified by the host image module, and secondary image module(s) configured to apply one or more targeted defect-inspection algorithms to the image data. The secondary image module(s) employ flexible sampling of the image data to match a data processing rate of the host image module within a selected tolerance. The flexible sampling of the image data is adjusted responsive to the inspection data generated by the results module and the host image module.