Patent ID: 7196785

Claim:
A system for monitoring foreign matter comprising: a manufacture line having plural process processing apparatuses; a production management system which manages the processing of workpieces in the manufacture line; foreign matter monitors mounted as on-machine equipment in said plural process processing apparatuses, said foreign matter monitors each having: an optical head containing a detecting optical system for irradiating a workpiece with light and a detecting optical system for receiving reflected and scattered light from the workpiece and converting the received light to a detection image signal; and an A/D converter for converting the detection image signal, which is obtained through conversion by the detecting optical system, to a detection digital image signal; and a base system having: a control unit for acquiring control information including information identifying each foreign matter monitor, process processing information and workpiece information, the process processing information and the workpiece information being acquired from the production management system; a buffer memory for storing said detection digital image signal, which is acquired from each foreign matter monitor, in association with the corresponding foreign matter monitor; a database storing inspection recipes each associated with a foreign matter monitor; and an image signal processing unit used for, based on a detection digital image signal associated with a foreign matter monitor and acquired from the buffer memory, judging whether foreign matter and other defects are present on a workpiece according to an inspection recipe which is selected for the corresponding foreign matter monitor based on control information from the control unit.