The invention provides a substrate-examining apparatus which is capable of measuring the detailed shape of a contact hole and the state of a hole bottom. A substrate-examining apparatus includes an electron source (21) for generating an electron beam, a deflector (22) for irradiating a surface of a substrate to be examined with the electron beam from the electron source so as to scan the electron beam, and substrate current detecting means for detecting a current caused to flow from the substrate to a reference potential portion of the apparatus. This apparatus characteristically includes an arithmetic operation processor (50), based on a deflection signal from the deflector (22) and a signal of the detected substrate current, for extracting a substrate current signal from a contact hole portion and a substrate current signal from a portion other than the contact hole portion from the signal of the detected substrate current, calculating amounts of respective currents, thereby displaying a state of the contact hole.