METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING PATTERN DEFECTS BY MEANS OF A PLURALITY OF INSPECTING UNITS EACH OPERATING IN ACCORDANCE WITH A RESPECTIVE INSPECTIING PRINCIPLE

An apparatus for inspecting pattern defects in circuit board conductors or other images has inspecting units which perform inspection operations based on various pattern matching approaches, which include design rule checking and expansion/contraction processing. Each of the inspecting units inspects a part of the pattern of an object. The part of a pattern is defined by a respective inspection and inhibition domain defining signals. The domain signals are formed with the aid of a scanning device and a binarizing circuit, a CAD system and a converter, a digitizer and a converter and the like. The apparatus then displays inspection decisions derived from each inspecting unit on a display unit, with respect to the different domains.