Patent ID: 8638430

Claim:
A method for determining a defect in a fine concave-convex pattern when a feature of an inspection object is detected via scatterometry in inspection of the fine concave-convex pattern, the method comprising: a) detecting a spectral waveform of a detection area of the inspection object; b) performing an area determination to determine an area section to which the detection area belongs based on a pattern type of the inspection object in accordance with design information or the spectral waveform; c) selecting a feature calculation equation and at least one determination index value corresponding to the determined area section, based on a result of the area determination; d) performing feature calculation on data for the detected spectral waveform in accordance with the selected feature calculation equation; e) comparing a calculated feature value with the at least one selected determination index value to perforin determination processing; and f) performing defect type determination based on a result of determination processing.