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:
Oct. 01, 2013
Filed:
Aug. 16, 2011
Hideaki Sasazawa, Kamisato, JP;
Takayuki Ishiguro, Kamisato, JP;
Kiyotaka Horie, Kamisato, JP;
Yu Yanaka, Kamisato, JP;
Hideaki Sasazawa, Kamisato, JP;
Takayuki Ishiguro, Kamisato, JP;
Kiyotaka Horie, Kamisato, JP;
Yu Yanaka, Kamisato, JP;
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for inspecting a surface of a substrate. The apparatus includes: a rotatable stage on which a substrate to be inspected is placed; an inspection optical system having an illumination light source for emitting light to a substrate placed on the stage and a detector for detecting light from the substrate which is irradiated with the light from the illumination light source; an A/D converter for amplifying and A/D converting signals output from the detector in the inspection optical system; and a defect detector for detecting defects in a surface of the substrate by processing signals output from the detector and converted by the A/D converter and classifying the defected defects. The defect detector extracts micro defects in the surface of the substrate by processing the signals output from the detector, and detects linear defects existing discretely in a linear region.