Patent ID: 7245366
Filing Date: 2007-07-17
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A surface inspection method, comprising: irradiating a predetermined luminous flux with respect to an inspection surface of an inspection object as an object of the surface inspection at a predetermined incident angle; relatively displacing at least one of said luminous flux and said inspection object such that said luminous flux scans said inspection surface; reflecting the luminous flux at a portion of said inspection surface at which said luminous flux has been irradiated; spatially decomposing a scattered light reflected at said portion of said inspection surface into a plurality of channels which is arranged at least in a one-dimensional direction along a direction orthogonal to a scanning direction of said luminous flux; detecting in each of the channels a light intensity of each of scattered lights which is obtained by decomposing said scattered light; and determining a size along said one-dimensional direction of a defect on the inspection surface by comparing the light intensity detected in each of the channels between the channels adjacent to each other; and outputting the information to a display device.