| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus capable of obtaining sufficient contrast required for an inspection even when inspecting a mask on which a pattern having reduced signal amplitude is formed. <P>SOLUTION: The pattern inspection apparatus includes a sensor, a storage device, a gradation conversion part, and a comparison part. The sensor picks up an optical image of a mask to be inspected on which a pattern is formed. The storage device stores a plurality of gradation conversion tables created in accordance with the sorts of masks. The gradation conversion part selects a gradation conversion table corresponding to the sort of the mask to be inspected from the plurality of gradation conversion table stored in the storage device and performs gradation conversion of a pixel value of the optical image data picked up by the sensor in accordance with the selected gradation conversion table. The comparison part inputs reference image data to be compared with the gradation-converted optical image data and compares the gradation-converted optical image data with the reference image data in each pixel. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT |
