We report on the design of an imaging microellipsometer enabling the generation of maps of the two ellipsometric angles &Dgr; and &PSgr;. Areas of 60×200 &mgr;m2are imaged at a rate of 1–2 images per minute. By working at angles (45°) much smaller than the Brewster angle (≈73° forSi/SiO2/air) a lateral resolution of 3 &mgr;m and a height resolution of 5 Å is achieved. The performance is demonstrated by thickness measurement of a laterally structured polymer film and a transient thickness measurement of dewetting fluid film ofn-hexadecane on aSi/SiO2wafer. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.