Abstract: To increase horizontal resolution while preventing the depth of focus, a magnetic disk inspection device is configured: a table part which has a spindle shaft and a stage; a lighting system which irradiates a magnetic disk; a specularly reflected light detection optical system; a scattered light detection optical system; and a signal processing unit which processes outputs from the specularly reflected light detection optical system and the scattered light detection optical system and detects a defect, in which the scattered light detection optical system is provided with a lens system and a photoelectric converter having a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in an array, and using the lens system, forms an image of the scattered light on the photoelectric converter, which is long in one direction and thinner than the width of the photoelectric conversion element in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the arrangement in an array.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical inspection method capable of detecting a finer defect in the surface of a substrate, including the steps of: irradiating a surface of a sample which is rotating and continuously moving in one direction with illumination light which is incident in a direction obliquely to the sample surface; detecting an image of light formed by a forward scattering light around an optical axis of regular-reflection light while excluding the regular-reflection light from the sample surface irradiated with the illumination light; condensing and detecting lateral scattering light which scatters laterally from the sample surface with respect to an incidence direction of the illumination light; and processing a signal obtained by detecting the image of light formed by the forward scattering light and a signal obtained by condensing and detecting the lateral scattering light to extract a defect including a scratch defect.

Abstract: Arrangements classifying or inspecting finely classified defects. When irradiating a subject with light; focusing a scattered light from a subject surface onto plural optical receivers; and inspecting for a defect based on outputs from the optical receivers. Performed are: creating a reference matrix recipe with respect to each defect, the recipe provided with plural feature items indicative of features of the defect on one axis of the matrix and optical items including a range of detected value levels of plural detecting optical systems with respect to the feature items on the other axis, and the recipe having information defining the defect at a plurality of points in the matrix; and determining a type of the defect by creating a work matrix recipe corresponding to the reference matrix recipe based on the output from the plurality of detectors and comparing the work matrix recipe with the reference matrix recipe.

Abstract: In order to enable an evaluation for changing parameters without stopping the inspection of a magnetic disk in production lines, the surface inspecting apparatus illuminates a sample with light while rotating the sample and moving the same in a direction perpendicular to the axis of rotation, detects light reflected/scattered in a first direction from the sample illuminated with the light to obtain a first detection signal, detects light reflected/scattered in a second direction from the sample illuminated with the light to obtain a second detection signal, and a detection of a defect on the sample by processing the first detection signal and the second detection signal, based on a first inspection recipe and a detection of a defect on the sample by processing the first detection signal and the second detection signal, based on a second inspection recipe are performed to detect a defect on the sample.

Abstract: In the inspection of a defect in a fine concave-convex pattern, a spectral waveform of a detection area of an inspection object is detected, area determination as to which area section determined by a pattern type of the inspection object the detection area belongs to is performed, a feature calculation equation and a determination index value which correspond to a determined area section and vary according to defect type is selected, feature calculation on the spectral waveform data in accordance with the selected feature calculation equation is performed, and a calculated feature value and the selected determination index value are compared to perform determination processing according to defect type.

Abstract: The invention provides an optical surface defect inspection apparatus and an optical surface defect inspection method that reduces an influence from a dead zone of a sensor array and that reduces the influence from reduction of a detected light amount in a case of extending over light receiving elements, thereby enabling a defect inspection with high sensitivity. According to the invention, a subject is irradiated with an inspection light, an image is formed on the sensor array including the light receiving elements separated by the dead zone insensitive to light scattered by a surface of the subject and arranged in a plurality of lines, outputs from two adjacent light receiving elements are added, and a defect on the surface of the subject is inspected for based on the result of the addition.

Abstract: Provided is a disk surface inspection device that makes it possible to extract defects repeatedly occurring at a particular position on the disk surface. The disk surface inspection device comprises conveyance means which extracts a disk from a cassette and conveys the disk, table means including a spindle which rotates the disk mounted thereon while moving the disk in a direction and a rotation angle detecting unit which detects the rotation angle of the spindle, optical detection means which irradiates the disk with light and detects reflected light from the disk, signal processing means which detects defects by processing a detection signal from the optical detection means, and output means. The signal processing means stores positional information of defects detected on the disk by use of rotation angle information on the spindle and positional information on a particular part of the disk stored in the cassette.

Abstract: In order to feed back information on the detected defect to a production process in a short period of time, there is provided a method for inspecting the surface of a sample by illuminating illumination light to the sample, detecting scattered light generated from the sample by the illumination light and processing a detection signal representing the detected scattered light in order to detect a defect on the sample. In the step of processing the detected scattered signal includes the sub-steps of making use of detection signals representing the scattered light scattered in the first elevation-angle direction and the scattered light scattered in the third elevation-angle direction in order to detect a defect on the sample, identifying the type of the detected defect, generating spectroscopic data by dispersing the scattered light scattered in the second elevation-angle direction and summing up the spectroscopic data for every defect type.

Abstract: An inspection region is specified using the design information to perform region division for measurement through a scatterometry method. The obtained detection data is classified by pattern into a periodic region and a non-periodic region. A spectroscopic characteristic is detected by an optical sensor to extract features. The extracted features are compared with features stored in a feature map database for each region to evaluate a state of a patterned medium.

Abstract: A substrate surface inspection device includes an inspection optical system irradiating at least one light onto a substrate, which is an inspection target and carried on a turnable stage, and having at least one detector detecting reflected or scattered light from the substrate, a detector processing the signals, which are outputted from the at least one detector and A/D converted, and detecting a defect on the substrate, an output calculator performing scattered light simulation on a defect detection model and estimating a plurality of detector outputs; and a classifier constructor constructing a classifier by mechanical learning of a rule base, wherein the classifier constructor is adapted to present collection of a necessary actual defect sample on the basis of the classifier obtained by scattered light simulation, and construct the classifier under necessary and sufficient conditions.

Abstract: In order to rapidly inspect shape defects in the object of inspection that is the minute pattern on a magnetic recording medium formed from patterned media, in the disclosed patterned media defect inspection method detected spectral waveform data is compared with reference-standard spectral reflectance waveform data, which is stored in a database and the pattern-shape of which is known, and defects are detected. The type of the defects is determined on the basis of the disparity, for each detected wavelength, between the spectral waveform data of the detected defects, and the reference-standard spectral reflectance waveform data.

Abstract: In an optical inspection for patterned media for hard disks, a pattern inspection device is provided for inspecting patterns without being susceptible to variations in film thickness and film quality of an underlying film, the device includes optical characteristics detection means for detecting optical characteristics of multilayers by processing, upon the reflected light being dispersed and detected by the spectroscopic detection means, the reflected light from a non-patterned region on the substrate, and processing a detection signal corresponding to, and detecting optical characteristics of, the reflected light from the patterns including the multilayers; and pattern inspection means for inspecting the patterns formed on the multilayers, by viewing, upon the detection of the optical characteristics by the optical characteristics detection means, information on the optical characteristics of the reflected light from the multilayers, and processing information on the optical characteristics of the reflected

Abstract: The invention has a function of preparing a data base for a relation between a defect shape and an arrangement for the optical system capable of detecting the shape at high sensitivity and automatically adjusting the arrangement for the optical system. As the method of preparing the data base, a method of using optical simulation or an experimental method of using a sample having an optical shape is applied. A pinhole position and a beam size are adjusted automatically so as to attain the optimal arrangement for the optical system to an inputted defect shape based on the data base.

Abstract: The present invention provides an optical inspection method capable of detecting a finer defect in the surface of a substrate, including the steps of: irradiating a surface of a sample which is rotating and continuously moving in one direction with illumination light which is incident in a direction obliquely to the sample surface; detecting an image of light formed by a forward scattering light around an optical axis of regular-reflection light while excluding the regular-reflection light from the sample surface irradiated with the illumination light; condensing and detecting lateral scattering light which scatters laterally from the sample surface with respect to an incidence direction of the illumination light; and processing a signal obtained by detecting the image of light formed by the forward scattering light and a signal obtained by condensing and detecting the lateral scattering light to extract a defect including a scratch defect.

Abstract: The present invention specifies a stamper that causes a defect at an early stage by inspecting a surface of a patterned medium and failure in molding of a pattern shape of a stamper at high speed or extracting a defect resulting from the stamper based upon a defect of a pattern on a disk so as to prevent the occurrence of a large quantity of failure beforehand. In the present invention, in order to inspect a pattern shape, wide-band light including a deep ultraviolet ray is radiated onto an inspected object, reflected light generated from the inspected object irradiated by an radiating optical system is detected, and it is judged whether the channel spectral data having fixed wavelength width of the detected reflected light exists within set limit or not.

Abstract: There is provided a defect inspecting apparatus, which includes an irradiating optical system of irradiating a light beam on a surface of a face plate of a disk mounted on a stage to scan the surface of the face plate, a light-receiving optical system of receiving specular reflection light that has transmitted a shading filter with a shading difference that changes an amount of the specular reflection light from the face plate resulting from the light beam irradiated on the disk, and a processing unit of identifying defects on the surface of the face plate from the change in amount of the specular reflection light that has transmitted a filter, so that a size and a height of the defect can be measured with high accuracy when irregular defects are determined, which is not easily achieved by a conventional lens effect.

Abstract: A defect generated during a nano-imprint process is inspected by a scatterometry method. The scatterometry method is to illuminate the surface of a medium with light having a plurality of wave lengths by means of a first illuminator through a half mirror and an objective lens and cause light reflected on the medium to be incident on a spectrometer through the objective lens and the half mirror. A second illuminator illuminates a foreign material or scratch on the surface of the medium from an oblique direction with respect to the surface of the medium. Light is scattered from the foreign material or scratch and detected by first and second detectors. The first detector is placed in a direction defining a first elevation angle with the surface of the medium. The second detector is placed in a direction defining a second elevation angle with the surface of the medium.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus for detecting defects on a disk surface which projects light on the disk surface by a light transmitting system, receives specula reflection light and scattered light by a light receiving system, exposes defects by performing a two-dimensional frequency filter process on a signal, and performs a defect determination process to extract a linear-shaped isolative defect candidate. Next, the present invention performs a periodicity determination process to classify and detect the periodically generated linear and circular arc defects and the isolatively generated linear and circular arc defects.

Abstract: In the inspection of a defect in a fine concave-convex pattern, a spectral waveform of a detection area of an inspection object is detected, area determination as to which area section determined by a pattern type of the inspection object the detection area belongs to is performed, a feature calculation equation and a determination index value which correspond to a determined area section and vary according to defect type is selected, feature calculation on the spectral waveform data in accordance with the selected feature calculation equation is performed, and a calculated feature value and the selected determination index value are compared to perform determination processing according to defect type.

Abstract: The present invention provides a disk surface defect inspection method including: irradiating a laser beam from an oblique direction onto a disk surface being rotated; detecting intensities of a first light that is scattered with low-angle and a second light that is scattered with high-angle from minute concave and convex defects; determining that a defect is the minute convex defect if a ratio of the intensity of the first light to the intensity of the second light is constant; and determining that a defect is the minute concave defect if the ratio of the intensity of the first light to the intensity of the second light is changed.