Patent ID: 7697139
Filing Date: 2010-04-13
Classification: G01B,G01N

Abstract:
1. A surface inspection apparatus, comprising: a first measuring unit illuminating repetitive patterns formed on a surface of a suspected substance and measuring, based on an intensity of regular reflection light generated from the repetitive patterns, a variation in said intensity caused by a change in shapes of said repetitive patterns; a second measuring unit illuminating said repetitive patterns with linearly polarized light, setting an angle formed between a repetitive direction of the repetitive patterns and a direction of a plane of vibration of said linearly polarized light at said surface at a tilt angle, and measuring, based on a polarized state of the regular reflection light generated from said repetitive patterns, a variation in said polarized state caused by the change in the shapes of said repetitive patterns; and a detecting unit detecting a defect of said repetitive patterns based on the variation in said intensity measured by said first measuring unit and the variation in said polarized state measured by said second measuring unit.