SURFACE CLEANING AND PARTICLE COUNTING

摘要

A method and an apparatus for detecting removable particulates initially on a test surface or surface to be inspected. The removable particles are transferred to a portion of a tacky surface (130) on a carrier (406) by adhering and then removing the portion of the tacky surface (130) from the test surface. The carrier (406) is received by a positioning means (131) and passed through the field of view of a surface inspection means guided by a controller (170). Signals from the surface inspection means are combined with coordinates from the controller (170) to produce particle coordinates (511), which indicate particulates initially on the test surface. Particle coordinates (511) on the tacky surface (130) measured before the tacky surface (130) is adhered and removed from the test surface (512) can be compared with particle coordinates (511) measured after the tacky surface (130) is adhered and removed from the test surface (512). Several test surfaces (512, 513, 514) can be sequentially inspected using the same carrier (406) by storing particle coordinates (511) after each measurement and comparing the most recent measurement with the cumulative previous measurements. The tacky surface (130) and the associated particle coordinates (511) can be conveyed to other analytical instruments for subsequent analysis.