Patent ID: 8493558

Claim:
A surface inspection apparatus, comprising: an irradiating unit that includes first, second, and third light sources which respectively emit first, second, and third illumination light beams having different wavelength ranges, and irradiates an inspection surface as a surface of a body to be inspected with illumination light beams, in a condition where the first, second, and third light sources are located adjacent to each other and arranged in a given order along the inspection surface; an imaging unit that images reflected light when the first, second, and third illumination light beams are reflected by the inspection surface, so as to obtain a plurality of items of image data corresponding to the respective wavelength ranges; and a control unit that detects a detection object on the inspection surface, based on said plurality of items of image data corresponding to the respective wavelength ranges which are obtained by the imaging unit; wherein the second light source is located between the first light source and the third light source; wherein the first illumination light beam includes red visible light, the second illumination light beam includes blue visible light and the third illumination light beam includes green visible light; wherein the irradiating unit further includes a first intermediate light source placed between the first light source and the second light source and a second intermediate light source placed between the second light source and the third light source; wherein the first intermediate light source is configured to emit a fourth illumination light beam including wavelength ranges of the first and second illumination light beams, and the second intermediate light source is configured to emit a fifth illumination light beam including wavelength ranges of the second and third illumination light beams; wherein the first, second, and third light sources include a first plurality, a second plurality, and a third plurality of light emitters, respectively, each light emitter of the first plurality of light emitters having the same wavelength range, each light emitter of the second plurality of light emitters having the same wavelength range, and each light emitter of the third plurality of light emitters having the same wavelength range; and wherein the first intermediate light source includes light emitters from the first plurality of light emitters and the second plurality of light emitters arranged in an alternating manner; and the second intermediate light source includes light emitters from both the second plurality of light emitters and the third plurality of light emitters, arranged in an alternating manner.