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:
Jan. 05, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 08, 1997
Kinya Kato, Yokohama, JP;
Yumi Nakagawa, Kawasaki, JP;
Nikon Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A foreign substance inspecting apparatus and method for detecting a foreign substance on a surface, includes a light source for providing light; a plurality of condensing optical systems for collecting the light from the light source and for forming a plurality of light spots on the surface; a scanning system for scanning the surface using the light spots formed by the condensing optical systems; a detecting optical system for detecting light scattered from at least one of the light spots by the foreign substance on the surface; and a surface shape measuring system for measuring a shape of the surface, wherein a focus of each one of the condensing optical systems is individually adjusted according to the surface shape measured by the surface shape measuring system.