Patent ID: 8314929

Claim:
An apparatus for inspecting defects further comprising: an illumination optical system for guiding light emitted by a light source onto a sample to illuminate a particular area of the sample as an illumination area; a plurality of detection optical units for converging from a plurality of directions light generated from the sample when illuminated by the illumination optical system to obtain detection signals of the light on a direction-by-direction basis; a signal processor for processing a plurality of detection signals obtained by the plurality of detection optical units to judge whether or not a defect is present on the sample; and positional-displacement measurement means for measuring a positional displacement of the illumination area on the wafer; wherein, upon inspection of a near edge portion of the sample, the signal processor processes a signal obtained by one of the plurality of detection optical units on which diffracted light generated from the near edge portion of the sample is not incident so as to judge whether or not a defect is present on the sample; and wherein the illumination optical system includes means for correcting the position of the illumination area on the sample based on the positional displacement measured by the positional-displacement measurement means.