Defect inspection apparatus

Abstract

An illumination optical system for illuminating a substrate and a light receiving optical system that receives diffracted light from the wafer are provided in a defect inspection apparatus that inspects for a defect present at the wafer based upon an image of the wafer obtained at the light-receiving optical system, with a numerical aperture at the illumination optical system set different from a numerical aperture at the light-receiving optical system and the absolute value of the difference between the numerical apertures at the illumination optical system and the light-receiving optical system set at a value equal to or larger than the quantity of the angular offset manifesting between the direction along which the diffracted light advances and the direction along which an optical axis of the light-receiving optical system extends. As a result, highly reliable inspection results by preventing the contrast of an image of a substrate formed by diffracted light from becoming lowered either in its entirety or in part is achieved even when there is an angular offset between the direction in which the diffracted light from the substrate advances and the direction of the optical axis of a light-receiving system.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.