Patent ID: 7417721

Claim:
A defects inspecting apparatus, comprising: a scanning stage for running into a predetermined direction while mounting an inspection target substrate thereon; an illumination optic system for irradiating an illumination light beam upon a surface of said inspection target substrate at a predetermined angle inclined thereto; a detection optic system including, an upper-directed detection optic system, having an objection lens for condensing upper-directed reflected/diffracted lights reflected and/or diffracted upwards from said inspection target substrate, an upper-directed image-forming optic system for forming an image of the upper-directed reflected/diffracted lights condensed through said objection lens, and an upper-directed photo-detector for receiving the image of the upper-directed reflected/diffracted lights, which is formed through said upper-directed image-forming optic system, and thereby converting into an upper-directed image signal, and a side-directed detection optic system, having a side-directed image-forming optic system for forming an image through condensing side-directed reflected/diffracted lights emitted from said inspection target substrate into a direction inclined so as to flatly intersect said illumination light beam, and a side-directed photo-detector for receiving an image of the side-directed reflected/diffracted lights, which is formed through said side-directed image-forming optic system; an A/D converter for converting the upper-directed image signal obtained from the upper-directed photo-detector of said detection optic system into an upper-directed digital image signal, and for converting the side-directed image signal obtained from said side-directed photo-detector into a side-directed digital image signal; and a signal processing system for detecting defects upon basis of each of the digital signals converted within said A/D converter.