Tailoring the angular spectrum with annular illumination and collection can significantly improve integrated circuit analysis with an optical microscope, when combined with solid immersion. We present the development, testing, and optimization of a simple and compact apparatus to implement annular illumination and collection in a Hamamatsu iPHEMOS system. We demonstrated improved imaging of an IBM 45nm silicon-oninsulator circuit, with annular illumination and collection in confocal scanning optical microscopy and widefield microscopy with an InGaAs camera.