Patent ID: 7653236

Claim:
A surface inspection apparatus for performing an inspection of a wafer surface, comprising: a computer which sets a first coordinate system using a vertex of a quadrangle that a wafer touches internally as a first origin in an area from a center of the wafer to a vicinity of an outer edge in the wafer surface, and sets a second coordinate system using the center as a second origin in the area; a scanning electron microscope (SEM) which performs an inspection of the wafer surface using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and determines coordinates of a defective spot with respect to the first origin, and acquires image data using the coordinates of the defective spot; a storage device which stores the image data of the defective spot in relation to coordinates with respect to the second origin in a position where the image data is acquired; and a display which outputs on a display unit the stored image data of the defective spot, wherein the area includes a first area where a chip is formed and a second area other than the first area.