Patent ID: 7865011
Filing Date: 2011-01-04
Classification: G01N,G01R

Abstract:
1. An outer surface-inspecting method using an outer surface inspecting apparatus for judging whether a defect of a defective portion extracted from an inspection area in an image of an object to be inspected through comparison with a template is acceptable or not, comprising: dividing the inspection area into a plurality of sections respectively having different acceptable levels; judging whether at least one extracted defective portion includes a plurality of parts located over more than one of the plurality of sections of the inspection area or only one part located within a single section; performing a first judgment, when at least one extracted defective portion includes a plurality of parts located over more than one of the plurality of sections respectively having different acceptable levels, by judging whether each of the parts of the defective portion, located on a different section, is acceptable or not according to the acceptable levels of each of the plural sections on which the parts of the defective portion are respectively located; performing a second judgment when at least one extracted defective portion is located only within a single section of the inspection area, by calculating a centroid of the at least one extracted defective portion and judging whether the at least one extracted defective portion is acceptable or not according to the acceptable level of the single section; judging whether to execute either the first judgment or the second judgment and executing first judgment or the second judgment based on the judgment, by use of an arithmetic processing circuit; and judging whether the defect of the defective portion is acceptable or not based on the result of the first or second judgments; wherein acceptable defect pixel numbers as threshold values representing acceptable levels are respectively set for the plurality of the sections, and whether the each part of the defective portion is acceptable or not is judged in the first judgment by comparing each acceptable defect pixel number with a pixel number of the corresponding part of the defective portion.