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. 02, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2009
Yuta Urano, Yokohama, JP;
Toshiyuki Nakao, Yokohama, JP;
Yoshimasa Oshima, Yokohama, JP;
Akira Hamamatsu, Yokohama, JP;
Yuta Urano, Yokohama, JP;
Toshiyuki Nakao, Yokohama, JP;
Yoshimasa Oshima, Yokohama, JP;
Akira Hamamatsu, Yokohama, JP;
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a surface of a sample includes a stage for holding the sample, an illumination optical system that irradiates a laser beam to form a linear illuminated area on the surface of the sample, a detection optical system, and a signal processing system. The detection optical system includes a detector device having a plurality of pixels for detecting light scattered from the linear illuminated area of the surface of the sample, and that outputs in parallel a plurality of detection signals having mutually different sensitivities acquired from the plurality of pixels of the detector device. The signal processing system selects an unsaturated detection signal from the plurality of detection signals and detects a defect in accordance with the selected detection signal.