A swing objective retarding immersion lens (SORIL) column for wafer inspection is designed and constructed based on SOIL concept. The column consists of a compound retarding electrostatic and magnetic immersion lens and five electrostatic deflectors. The retarding electrostatic and magnetic immersion lens has small spherical and chromatic aberration coefficients for low landing energy. All electrostatic deflectors have a cylindrical duodecapole structure. One deflector is accommodated between the polepiece of the magnetic lens and the specimen surface, and operated at high voltage to fulfill SOIL condition. An on-axis annular semiconductor detector with a small opening in the center is employed to collect signal electrons. The annular detector achieves. high collection efficiency over a large scan field. Experimental results show that the SORIL column has accomplished a 600 mum x 600 mum scan field with 0.1 mum maximum spot size in a wide landing energy range (from 200 to 2000 eV) without dynamic aberration correction or dynamic focusing. Resolution of 15 nm is achieved in a 50 mum x 50 mum scan field. The probe beam current delivered by the SORIL column is from a few nA to more than 100 nA because of the specially designed bright electron gun. The SORIL column has been installed onto HMI's electron beam wafer inspection tool, eScan(TM) 300. The SORIL's optical performances enable eScan(TM) 300 to be a powerful electron beam wafer inspection and in-line process monitoring tool. (C) 2004 American Vacuum Society.