Defect inspection apparatus and defect inspection method

A defect inspection apparatus comprising:

• an illumination optical system comprising an objective lens and an imaging lens and a reflecting mirror disposed therebetween and configured to irradiate a sample with an illumination spot;
• a plurality of detectors configured to detect, from a plurality of directions, reflected light from the sample irradiated with the illumination spot by the illumination optical system;
• a scan control processor configured to control a scan of the sample with the illumination spot of the illumination optical system by overlapping a plurality of detection regions such that the detection regions partially overlap, the plurality of detection regions being detected by the plurality of detectors configured to execute a detection from the plurality of directions when the sample is scanned with the illumination spot of the illumination optical system;
• and
• a signal processor configured to process a signal obtained by detecting B the reflected light from the sample by the plurality of detectors to detect a defect, wherein
• the signal processor is configured to
• synthesize an integrated signal by processing the signal detected a plurality of times by overlapping the reflected light of the sample for each detection region by the plurality of detectors;
• calculate and record a deviation of a position of the illumination spot with respect to a major axis of the illumination spot and a minor axis of the illumination spot;
• and
• detect the defect on a surface of the sample based on the synthesized integrated signal adjusted by at least the stored deviation of the minor axis of the illumination spot.