Patent ID: 7869966

Claim:
An inspection apparatus comprising: an image acquiring unit which inspects an object on which a circuit pattern is formed so as to acquire an image including a defect of the object; an image storage unit which stores the image including the defect, acquired by the image acquiring unit; an inspection processing operation unit which detects at least a defect by comparing the image including the defect stored in the image storage with a reference image, so as to extract inspection data including information about a position and a size of each detected defect; an input unit which inputs data from a CAD data base of detailed layout patterns of components of the object by converting said data from said CAD data base into circuit layout pattern information; a graphical user interface unit which displays a screen for setting a label to classify each detected defect, a screen for selecting a label to be reviewed, a screen for setting an order for reviewing the labeled defects, and a screen for displaying a defect map and an enlarged image of the reviewed defect; and a judging unit which judges a priority of review of each detected defect by subsequently comparing the information about position and size of each detected defect already extracted from the inspection processing operation unit, with information of a width and pitch of patterns which are background to the defect extracted from the circuit layout pattern converted from the CAD database, and giving a higher priority to a defect having a size which is larger than: an accumulated size of a width of the pattern and a pitch of the pattern, and either one of a larger size among the pattern and the pattern pitch, than to a defect having a size which is smaller.