Patent attributes
A surface inspection apparatus of the present invention includes an irradiation optical unit having a multibeam irradiation optical unit for converging and irradiating multiple beams upon a surface of an object to be inspected; a detector which has a light-condensing optical unit including light-sensitive elements for respectively receiving the multiple beams reflected by the surface of the inspecting object; and a processor which obtains a plane-coordinate-position of a position to be irradiated and detected at a reference height position based on a difference between light-receiving reference positions of each of the light-sensitive elements when assumed that the irradiated and detected position of the inspecting object is at the reference height position and actual light-receiving positions of each of the light-sensitive elements, according to a result of analysis and process of surface state information.