Claims
- 1. A defect inspection method comprising: an illumination process of radiating an illumination slit-shaped beam comprising lights substantially parallel to a longitudinal direction to a substrate serving as an object of inspection and having circuit patterns created thereon in a direction inclined at a predetermined gradient relative to the direction of a line normal to said substrate and inclined at a predetermined gradient on a surface with respect to a group of main straight lines of said circuit patterns with its longitudinal direction oriented almost perpendicularly to a direction of a movement of a moving stage for mounting and moving said inspected substrate;
a detection process of receiving a scattered light reflected by a defect such as a foreign particle existing on said inspected substrate illuminated in said illumination process and converting said received light into a detection signal by using an image sensor; and a defect judging process of extracting a signal indicating a defect such as a foreign particle on the basis of said detection signal output in said detection process.
- 2. A defect inspection method according to claim 1 wherein a diffraction-light pattern of at least a repetitive pattern among said circuit patterns existing on said substrate serving as an object of inspection is shielded by using a spatial filter in said detection process.
- 3. A defect inspection method according to claim 1 wherein, in said defect judging process, a signal indicating a defect such as a foreign particle is extracted from said detection signal by using a criterion set on the basis of a variation computed from said detection signal generated from locations at which the same circuit patterns are naturally created or positions in close proximity to said locations.
- 4. A defect inspection method according to claim 1 wherein, in said defect judging process, a signal indicating a defect such as a foreign particle is extracted from said detection signal on the basis of a criterion set for each of a variety of areas constituting said circuit pattern.
Priority Claims (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
P10-213056 |
Jul 1998 |
JP |
|
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/362,135, filed Jul. 28, 1999 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/535,577, filed Sep. 28, 1995, which is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/046,720, filed Apr. 16, 1993, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,463,459, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 07/679,313, filed Apr. 2, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,233,191 and U.S. application Ser. No. 07/778,363, filed Oct. 17, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,274,434.
Continuations (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09362135 |
Jul 1999 |
US |
Child |
10170378 |
Jun 2002 |
US |
Parent |
08046720 |
Apr 1993 |
US |
Child |
08535577 |
Sep 1995 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08535577 |
Sep 1995 |
US |
Child |
09362135 |
Jul 1999 |
US |
Parent |
07679313 |
Apr 1991 |
US |
Child |
08046720 |
Apr 1993 |
US |
Parent |
07778363 |
Oct 1991 |
US |
Child |
08046720 |
Apr 1993 |
US |