Patent ID: 7619729

Claim:
Inspection equipment comprising: an inspection object moving stage configured for continuously moving in both main scan and sub-scan directions for providing a rotational motion in the main scan direction and a translational motion in the sub-scan direction; a light source; an illumination unit configured for forming an illuminating spot of a predetermined size to illuminate a surface of an object to be inspected with light from the light source; a light detecting unit configured for detecting light from the object and converting the detected light to an electric signal; and an inspection processing unit configured for inspecting the object based on the electric signal; wherein the inspection processing unit includes a first memory which stores data with respect to the electric signal and a second memory which stores a data regarding relative illumination distribution of the illuminating light within the illuminating spot on the surface of the inspection object, and calculates a position of a particle or defect using a result of comparison between data in the first memory and data in the second memory.