Patent ID: 7672501

Claim:
A substrate inspection system comprising: an inspection device associated with one other than the first of a plurality of production processes that are carried out sequentially for producing substrates; an image collector associated with one of said production processes upstream to the production process with which said inspection device is associated and adapted to communicate with said inspection device; and an image display device for receiving images from said inspection device and said image collector and displaying said received images; wherein said inspection device comprises: image taking means for taking an image of a target substrate of inspection; inspecting means for using an image taken by said image taking means for each of target portions on said target substrate to carry out a specified measurement process and judging said each target portion by comparing a measured value obtained by said specified measurement process with a specified reference value; selecting means for obtaining, when a plurality of substrates of a same kind have been processed by said image taking means and said inspecting means, a margin of said measured value with respect to said specified reference value for each of said target portions for said plurality of substrates and selecting a target portion for analysis based on said margin; and transmitting means for transmitting identification data indicating said target portion for analysis selected by said selecting means to said image collector and to said image display device; wherein said image collector comprises: another image taking means for taking images of substrates after the production process with which said image collector is associated has been carried out thereon; and image saving means for extracting, in response to said identification data received from said inspection device, an image portion corresponding to the target portion indicated by said identification data out of the images generated by said another image taking means and saving said extracted image portion; and wherein said image display device serves to receive from said inspection device an image portion of said target portion selected as said target portion for analysis based on said identification data and generated when a specified substrate was being inspected, and to receive an image portion of a same target portion as the target portion of which an image was transmitted from said inspection device for said specified substrate and to display both said received image portions so as to be mutually compared.