Patent ID: 7485858

Claim:
A semiconductor wafer inspection method comprising the steps of: placing a semiconductor wafer on a sample stage of an electron beam apparatus having a first electron beam optical system for irradiating an electron beam from a direction normal to a surface of a sample, and a second electron beam optical system for irradiating an electron beam from a direction tilted from the direction normal to the surface; obtaining defect position data on the semiconductor wafer from an inspection apparatus; moving the stage to a position corresponding to a defect position obtained from the inspection data, and capturing a scanned image of a defect by using the first electron beam optical system; discriminating a mode of the defect on the basis of the captured defect image; determining whether or not there is a defect which has been discriminated as one of a peeling mode; and capturing a scanned image of an edge portion of the semiconductor wafer by using the second electron beam optical system, when it is determined in the above determination that there is a defect of the peeling mode.