Patent ID: 8729514

Claim:
A defect inspection apparatus comprising: a first illumination optical system, which is configured to illuminate an inspection area on a sample surface from a line direction at or about normal to said sample surface; a second illumination optical system, which is configured to illuminate said inspection area from a line direction that is slanted with respect to said sample surface; a detection optical system, having a plurality of first detectors which are located in front of, on the sides of, and behind said inspection area, with respect to the illumination direction of said second illumination optical system, and which is configured so that a regular reflected light component from said sample surface, by illumination light of said second illumination optical system, is not converged; and a signal processing system, which is configured to inspect and classify a defect, upon basis of signals obtained from a pair of detectors installed facing each other among said plurality of first detectors, by the detection of: light from the sample surface illuminated by the first illumination optical system, and light from the sample surface illuminated by the second illumination optical system, when the pair of detectors detect that light scattered from a defect in the inspection area is stronger than light scattered from elsewhere on said sample surface.