Manufacturing method of semiconductor substrative and method and apparatus for inspecting defects of patterns on an object to be inspected

A pattern detection apparatus for detecting a pattern on an object to be inspected, comprising:

• illumination means for emitting an annular-looped diffusion illumination light formed with a plurality of virtual spot light sources;
• an illumination optical system for focusing and irradiating the emitted annular-looped diffusion light onto a pattern on an inspected object through a pupil of an objective lens;
• a detection optical system for receiving with an image sensor, an image of the pattern on the inspected object obtained by focusing a first or second order diffraction light including a 0th order diffraction light which is reflected from the pattern on the inspected object by the focused and irradiated-annular-looped diffusion illumination light from the illumination optical system and entered into the pupil of the object lens, and for converting the received image of the pattern to image signals of the pattern for obtaining information relating to the pattern;
• a pupil detection optical system for receiving with another image sensor, the image on the pupil of the objective lens from the another image sensor and for converting a received image to image signals of the pupil;
• and
• control means for controlling the annular-looped diffusion illumination light emitted by the illumination means according to the image signals of the pupil obtained from the another image sensor of the pupil detection optical system.

A pattern detection apparatus for detecting a pattern on an object to be inspected comprising:

• illumination means for emitting an annular-looped diffusion illumination light formed with a plurality of virtual spot light sources:
• an illumination optical system for focusing and irradiating the emitted annular-looped diffusion light onto a pattern on an inspected object through a pupil of an objective lens;
• and
• a detection optical system for receiving with an image sensor, an image of the pattern on the inspected object obtained by focusing a first or second order diffraction light including a 0th order diffraction light which is reflected from the pattern on the inspected object by the focused and irradiated annular-looped diffusion illumination light from the illumination optical system and entered into the pupil of the object lens, and for converting the received image of the pattern to image signals of the pattern for obtaining information relating to the pattern,
• a pupil detection optical system for receiving with another image sensor a distribution of locality of diffraction light including the 0th order diffraction light and for converting the received image to image signals of the pupil;
• and
• control means for controlling the annular-looped diffusion illumination light emitted by the illumination means according to the image signals of the pupil obtained from the another image sensor of the pupil detection optical system.

A pattern defect inspection apparatus for detecting a defect of a pattern on an object to be inspected comprising:

• illuminating means for irradiating a uniform illumination light in a detection field of an object to be inspected through an objective lens;
• image detection means for detecting and converting a reflected light from the inspected object to an image by photoelectric conversion;
• image comparison means for comparing the detection image with a reference image;
• a pupil detection optical system for receiving with an image sensor, the image on a pupil of the objective lens and for converting a received image to image signals of the pupil;
• and
• control means for controlling the uniform illumination light emitted by the illuminating means according to the image signals of the pupil obtained from the image sensor of the pupil detection optical system.