The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 07, 2026
Filed:
Dec. 23, 2021
Hitachi High-tech Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Tomoharu Nagashima, Tokyo, JP;
Hisaaki Kanai, Tokyo, JP;
Masami Makuuchi, Tokyo, JP;
Masaya Yamamoto, Tokyo, JP;
Shunichi Matsumoto, Tokyo, JP;
HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An optical-type foreign matter inspection device that inspects a foreign matter on a surface of a sample includes a rotary stage that is driven to rotate and on which the sample is placed, a laser light source configured to irradiate the surface of the sample with a laser beam, variable optical attenuators of two or more stages configured to adjust a light amount of the laser beam, a sensor configured to detect light scattered or reflected from the surface of the sample, an A/D conversion circuit configured to convert an intensity of light received by the sensor into a digital pixel based on an output signal of the sensor, a data processor configured to receive an output signal of the A/D conversion circuit and coordinate information output from the rotary stage and associate the coordinate information with the output signal of the A/D conversion circuit to output the associated information as detection data, and an attenuator controller configured to control transmittances of the variable optical attenuators based on the coordinate information.