| 摘要 |
PURPOSE:To make it possible to detect only true defects, by extracting the characteristic of a boundary line with respect to the side of a reference pattern, extracting a corner part as a chracteristic, so that the peculiar characteristic, which is detected on the side of detection, is not made to be the defect, when the characteristic corresponding to the position on the side of the reference does not exist. CONSTITUTION:The pattern data of a mask 11 to be checked, which is detected by a detector 13, is stored in a memory 14. A reference pattern data, which is generated from a design data stored in an outer memory 19, is stored in a memory 15. Characteristic extracting parts 16 and 17 for both patterns are constituted by boundary-characteristic extracting devices D1-Dn and boundary-characteristic memories M1-Mn. The characteristic of a longitudinal, lateral or slant boundary line can be extracted by the extracing parts 16 and 17. The corner part of the pattern is extracted by the extracting part 17 on the side of the reference pattern as the characteristic. Both patterns are compared by comparing and judging devices J1-Jn of a judging part 18. The case, where the characteristic exists on the side of the detecting pattern and the characteristic does not exist on the side of the reference pattern, is judged as a defect. |
