Defect observation method and defect observation apparatus

Abstract

Provided is a defect observation apparatus capable of analyzing a structure such as an arrangement and a vertical relationship of a circuit pattern formed by using design information of a sample, creating a non-defective product image from a defect image based on the analysis results, and detecting a defect by comparative inspection. The defect observation apparatus is provided with a computing unit 120 which receives an input regarding design information of a sample 106 to be observed from a storage unit 114, receives an input regarding observable layer information previously set to the sample to be observed from the storage unit 114 based on the design information including one or more layers, receives an input regarding defect coordinates on the sample detected by another inspection apparatus from the storage unit 114, analyzes, for a defect on the sample 106 to be observed based on the defect coordinates, a circuit pattern structure in a peripheral area of the defect coordinates based on the design information and the layer information, estimates a non-defective product image based on the analysis result of the circuit pattern structure, and detects a defect by a comparative inspection between the non-defective product image and image information from an image obtaining unit.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.