Patent ID: 7224826

Claim:
A fluorescent intensity measuring method which measures the intensity of minute points which are arranged on a substrate having a substantially flat surface and include a fluorescent substance, comprising: a first imaging step of emitting light with a wavelength with which the fluorescent substance can be excited and obtaining an image of each minute point including the fluorescent substance as a first image; a second imaging step of obtaining an image of foreign matter adhering on the substrate as a second image by light with a wavelength which does not excite the fluorescent substance; an extraction step of obtaining a binarized image by extracting a foreign matter area from the second image; a foreign matter elimination step of disabling an image at a part overlapping the foreign matter area in the first image with the binarized image being used as a mask; an expansion step of expanding the foreign matter area of the binarized image by a determined quantity; a normalization step of normalizing the measured intensity of the minute point by using a reference area of the minute point; and a reliability judgment step of obtaining an area of each minute point after the foreign matter elimination step and judging the reliability of the measurement value by using a ratio of the obtained area and the reference area of the minute point.