摘要 |
The present invention provides a spatial filtering technology for exposing a defect image independently of polarization properties of defect scattered light, a defect inspection method for increasing a defect capture rate by suppressing the brightness saturation of a normal pattern, and a defect inspection apparatus that uses the defect inspection method. An array of spatial filters is disposed in one or more optical paths, which are obtained by polarizing and splitting a detection optical path, to filter diffracted light and scattered light emitted from the normal pattern. An image whose brightness saturation is suppressed is obtained by controlling an illumination light amount and/or detection efficiency during image detection in accordance with the amount of scattered light from the normal pattern. |