Patent ID: 8228496

Claim:
A defect inspection apparatus comprising: a stage that is movable relative to an optical system; an illumination system for illuminating an inspection area that is situated on the stage; a reflecting mirror that reflects light which is scattered from the inspection area; an image sensor for converting, to a signal, an image which is formed on the image sensor; and a plurality of lenses situated in an optical path that extends from said inspection area to said image sensor, for receiving said light scattered from the inspection area, guiding said light to said image sensor, and forming an image on, said image sensor; a signal processing system for processing the signal converted by the image sensor, and thereby detecting defects; wherein said reflecting mirror is positioned between said inspection area and a first one of said plurality of lenses that is nearest said inspection area of all lenses that are situated in said optical path; a reflecting surface of the reflecting mirror is arranged substantially parallel to a direction in which pixels are arrayed in the image sensor; and said reflecting surface is tilted relative to said optical path.