Method and apparatus for surface inspection

Abstract

The present invention has one object to provide a method and an apparatus for surface inspection capable of excellently inspecting a substrate on which repeated pattern with finer pitch is formed. In order to carry out above object, the present invention provides a surface inspection apparatus comprising; a light source unit which provides light flux; an illumination optical system which leads the light flux to a test substrate, having either one of a reflection mirror or a positive lens for illumination; a light receiving optical system which receives a diffracted light from the test substrate, having either one of a reflection mirror or a positive lens for light receiving; and a processing unit which detects surface condition of the test substrate based on output from a light receiving unit consisting of the light receiving optical system and an imaging device; wherein the light source unit provides ultraviolet light having a wavelength shorter than 400 nm.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.