RETCLE INSPECTING APPARATUS CAPABLE OF SHORTENING AN INSPECTING TIME

A reticle inspecting apparatus comprises an image-pickup optical system (4, 5) for picking up an image of a pattern of a reticle mounted on an XY stage (3) to obtain a picked-up image pattern having first through N-th (N being an integer not smaller than two) frames, first through M-th (M being an integer not smaller than two and not greater than N) image comparators (71-74), a distributor (6) for distributing the first through the N-th frames of the picked-up image pattern to the first through the M-th image comparators (71-74) one after another, and an inspection controller (1) for converting CAD (Computer Aided Design) data used in drawing the pattern of the reticle into first through N-th intermediate data corresponding to the first through the N-th frames of the picked-up image pattern and for preliminarily transferring the first through the N-th intermediate data to the first through the M-th image comparators (71-74) one after another. The first through the M-th image comparators (71-74) compare the first through the N-th frames of the picked-up image pattern with first through N-th reference images produced from the first through the N-th intermediate data, respectively.