Setting of a parameter of a defect inspection tool is based on trial and
error in which effects are confirmed one by one and set, and the setting
requires a high technique and is significantly inefficient. The present
invention is to provide an inspection method and an inspection tool
capable of solving such a problem and of setting the parameter
(hereinafter, referred to as an inspection parameter) required for
detecting the defect easily.
In order to solve the problem, a defect inspection tool according to the
present invention is provided with image obtaining unit for obtaining an
image by applying an electron beam to a specimen; an image processing
unit for performing a calculation process by using each predetermined
inspection parameter group based on the image obtained by the image
obtaining unit; and a parameter tuning unit for performing a process to
determine an effective inspection parameter group from calculation
results by the calculation process and narrowing down an inspection
parameter group range by repeating the process for a plurality of images
obtained by the image obtaining unit, and is provided with a
configuration to detect the defect by using the inspection parameter
group narrowed down.