Defect examination apparatus

A defect examination apparatus for detecting defect locations of a plurality of to-be-inspected objects vertically and horizontally arranged according to a prescribed rule, comprising:

• blob analysis means for finding location coordinates of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects;
• rotation angle calculation means for finding a rotation angle for a horizontal series of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects against a horizontal line and a rotation angle for a vertical series of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects against a vertical line based on a location coordinate found by the blob analysis means, the rotation angle calculation means finding an optimal rotation angle by using a frequency distribution found by projecting and accumulating to-be-inspected objects' location coordinates onto a prescribed projection axis;
• and
• matrix number analysis means for finding matrix numbers for the plurality of to-be-inspected objects based on a rotation angle found by the rotation angle calculation means and peak locations of frequency distributions corresponding to respective rows and columns of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects.

A defect examination apparatus for detecting defect locations of a plurality of to-be-inspected objects vertically and horizontally arranged according to a prescribed rule, comprising:

• blob analysis means for finding location coordinates of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects;
• rotation angle calculation means for finding a rotation angle for a horizontal series of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects against a horizontal line and a rotation angle for a vertical series of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects against a vertical line based on a location coordinate found by the blob analysis means, the rotation angle calculation means finding an optimal rotation angle by using a frequency distribution found by projecting and accumulating to-be-inspected objects' location coordinates onto a prescribed projection axis;
• pitch size calculation means for finding vertical and horizontal pitch sizes of the plurality of to-be-inspected objects from distances between adjacent peak locations of frequency distributions corresponding to respective rows and columns;
• and
• cell creation means for virtually finding lattice lines based on a rotation angle found by the rotation angle calculation means and a pitch size found by the pitch size calculation means and for virtually creating a cell of a size based on the pitch size at each intersection point of the lattice lines;
• and
• number analysis means for assigning matrix numbers to a plurality of cells created by the cell creation means and for numbering the plurality of to-be inspected objects by using the cells assigned with corresponding matrix numbers.