US Patent 7912276 Method and apparatus for detecting pattern defects

With the objective of achieving defect kind training in a short period of time to teach classification conditions of defects detected as a result of inspecting a thin film device, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a visual inspection method, and an apparatus therefor, comprising the steps of: detecting defects based on inspection images acquired by optical or electronic defect detection means, and at the same time calculating features of the defects; and classifying the defects according to classification conditions set beforehand, wherein said classification condition setting step further includes the steps of: collecting defect features over a large number of defects acquired beforehand from the defect detection step; sampling defects based on the distribution of the collected defect features over the large number of defects; and setting defect classification conditions based on the result of reviewing the sampled defects.