ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,366,539, issued on July 22, was assigned to Hitachi High-Tech Corp. (Tokyo).
"Surface inspection device" was invented by Katsuhiko Kimura (Tokyo), Yoshihiro Satou (Tokyo), Masaya Yamamoto (Tokyo) and Ayumi Tomiyama (Tokyo).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A surface inspection device (1) according to the present invention comprises: a plate-shaped sample holding member (3) which can hold a sample (2); a spindle motor (4) for rotating the sample holding member (3); a turntable (5) which is fixed to the spindle motor (4) and rotated by the spindle motor (4); a frame (6) to which the spindle motor (4) is fixed; a plurality of support members (1...