Defect inspection apparatus

A defect inspection apparatus for inspecting a surface of a sample, comprising:

• a stage for holding the sample and for moving the sample in a rotational direction and in a translational direction;
• an illumination optical system that irradiates a laser beam to form a linear illuminated area on the surface of the sample;
• a detection optical system that includes a detector device including a plurality of pixels for detecting light scattered from the linear illuminated area of the surface of the sample, the plurality of pixels having different sensitivity values with respect to one another for the detected light, and that transforms a plurality of the scattered light detected by the plurality of pixels of the detector device having the different sensitivity values to a plurality of detection signals;
• and
• a signal processing system that selects an unsaturated detection signal from the plurality of detection signals detected by the pixels of the detector device having the different sensitivity values from a same area of the surface of the sample and that detects a defect on the surface of the sample in accordance with the selected unsaturated detection signal;
• wherein at least one of the illumination optical system and the detection optical system provide mutually different optical conditions for at least one of illumination and detection, and the plurality of pixels of the detector have different responsiveness set in accordance with the mutually different optical conditions for the at least one illumination and detection.