Patent ID: 7684031

Claim:
A visual inspection apparatus comprising: a visual inspection section for performing visual inspection of a surface of a workpiece, and a peripheral edge inspection section that acquires an enlarged image of a peripheral edge of the workpiece, wherein the workpiece is a flat plate-like test body, and wherein the peripheral edge inspection section is a variable direction-of-view observation apparatus including: a base part that is fixed in a position where a peripheral end face of the flat plate-like test body can be observed; an observation optical system that has an optical axis orthogonal to the surface of the test body; a biaxial stage that supports the observation optical system, and that is movable in directions orthogonal and parallel to the surface of the test body; a mirror part that is rotatably supported by the biaxial stage to deflect the optical axis in the observation optical system, to make the optical axis reach the peripheral end face of the test body; and a rotation guide part that is provided in the base part, that abuts and biases the mirror part so as to allow sliding of the mirror part, and that rotates the mirror part so that the optical axis in the observation optical system may be deflected and may be made to reach the peripheral end face of the test body at a time of movement of the biaxial stage in the orthogonal direction, wherein, while a direction of view is changed by the rotation of the mirror part, a distance between the observation optical system and the peripheral end face of the test body is kept substantially constant, and the peripheral end face of the test body is observed.