Patent ID: 6927847
Filing Date: 2005-08-09
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for inspecting pattern defects, comprising: a laser beam source for emitting a laser beam therefrom; a light-amount adjustment optical system for adjusting a light-amount of the laser beam emitted from said laser beam source; a slit-like light flux optical system for converting the laser beam adjusted in the light amount in said light-amount adjustment optical system into a slit-like light flux, said slit-like flux optical system including a homogenizer having a plurality of lenses with a rectangular cross-sectional configuration arranged in at least one of a horizontal and a vertical direction for forming the slit-like flux; a coherence reduction optical system for lowering coherency of the slit-like laser light flux obtained from said slit-like light flux optical system; an illumination optical system for irradiating upon a sample the slit-like illumination light flux, which is lowered in the coherency thereof in said coherence reduction optical system; an image-forming optical system for forming an image of reflection light obtained from the sample, which is irradiated by said illumination optical system; a detection optical system, including an image sensor for receiving an image of the reflection light, which is formed in said image-forming optical system, and for converting it into an image signal; and an image processing portion for detecting defects on patterns formed on the sample, upon basis of information relating to a detected image signal which is detected by the image sensor of said detection optical system.