An electron beam apparatus and method are presented for collecting side-view and plane-view SEM imagery. The electron beam apparatus includes an electron source, some intermediate lenses if needed, an objective lens and an in-lens sectional detector. The electron source will provide an electron beam. The intermediate lenses focus the electron beam further. The objective lens is a combination of an immersion magnetic lens and a retarding electrostatic lens focuses the electron beam onto the specimen surface. The in-lens detector will be divided into two or more sections to collect secondary electrons emanating from the specimen with different azimuth and polar angle so that side-view SEM imagery can be obtained.