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. 15, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 27, 2008
Koji Kawaki, Hitachinaka, JP;
Atsushi Takane, Mito, JP;
Hiroshi Kikuchi, Hitachi, JP;
Nobuhiro Obara, Hitachinaka, JP;
Yuji Inoue, Hitachinaka, JP;
Koji Kawaki, Hitachinaka, JP;
Atsushi Takane, Mito, JP;
Hiroshi Kikuchi, Hitachi, JP;
Nobuhiro Obara, Hitachinaka, JP;
Yuji Inoue, Hitachinaka, JP;
Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
To provide a defect inspection apparatus and method adapted to easily assign threshold levels to scattered-light detectors and to appropriately acquire data detected by each scattered-light detector. The apparatus includes a stage device on which to rest a sample; a laser light irradiation device that irradiates the sample on the stage device with inspection light; scattered-light detectors, each of which detects a beam of light, scattered from the sample, and outputs an image signal; a threshold level setter formed so that an associated threshold level for judging whether defects are present is set only for an image signal selected from individual image signals of the scattered-light detectors or from image signals obtained by arithmetic processing based on the image signals, and a threshold level setting circuit that acquires the individual image signals, only if the image signal exceeds the threshold level set in the threshold level setter.