Patent ID: 7834993
Filing Date: 2010-11-16
Classification: G01B,G01N,H01L

Abstract:
1. A surface inspection apparatus comprising: an illumination unit which illuminates a surface of a substrate to be inspected with a linearly polarized parallel light and has an optical element that turns a detection light into beams that are parallel; a receiving unit which receives a reflected light in a lump from repetitive pattern(s) on a region of the substrate to be inspected that is larger than a chip region of at least one chip, using a polarized light component, to generate a signal that corresponds to a degree of an ellipseness of a polarization state of the reflected light; and a detection unit which detects a change of the repetitive pattern(s) according to the signal; wherein the polarized light component is arranged so as to extract a component of an elliptically polarized light in a minor axis direction.