Patent ID: 7262425

Claim:
An apparatus for inspecting particles and/or pattern defects of an object under inspection, the apparatus comprising: illuminating means for irradiating the object under inspection with light; light detecting means for detecting scattered light from the object under inspection caused by irradiation of the light by said illuminating means; detecting means for processing signals obtained by detection of the scattered light by said light detecting means to detect particles and/or the pattern defects for each of a plurality of inspection areas, based on criteria associated with the plurality of inspection areas, the plurality of inspection areas being obtained by dividing the object under inspection; data processing means for obtaining information on sizes of the particles and/or the pattern defects, information on classification of the particles and/or the pattern defects, and information on occurrence frequencies of the particles and/or the pattern defects for each of the plurality of inspection areas, based on information on said each of the particles and/or the pattern defects detected by said detecting means for each of the plurality of inspection areas; and display means for displaying the information on the occurrence frequencies for each size classification of the particles and/or the pattern defects for said each of the plurality of inspection areas, obtained by processing by said data processing means; wherein the data processing means obtains information on size of the particles and/or the pattern defects from an intensity of the scattered light detected by the light detecting means by referring to a relationship between an intensity of scattered light from a standard particle and a size of the standard particle, and using a calibration coefficient for compensating for a change in intensity of the light of the illuminating means from a predetermined intensity.