| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a surface inspection apparatus which is capable of certainly dealing with the microfabrication of repeating pitches even without making illumination light into short wavelength. <P>SOLUTION: A surface inspection apparatus 10 includes illumination means 13 which illuminates repeating patterns formed on an object 20 to be inspected with linearly polarized light, setting means 11 which sets an angle formed from a direction of an incidence plane of the linearly polarized light on a surface and a repeating direction of the repeating patterns to any other predetermined value than 0, extraction means 38 which extracts a polarized light component vertical to a vibration plane of the linearly polarized light, in regularly reflected light from the repeating patterns, and detection means 15 which detects a defect of the repeating patterns on the basis of light intensity of the regularly reflected light outputted from light receiving means 39. The setting means sets the angle formed from the direction of the incidence plane of the linearly polarized light on the surface and the repeating direction of the repeating patterns so as to maximize a difference between the intensity of light from a normal portion on the surface and the intensity of light from a defective portion on the surface. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT |
