A surface inspection apparatus and method of inspecting chip surfaces includes a laser generator that generates a periodic CW laser and is transformed into an inspection laser beam having a beam size smaller than a surface size of the chip. Thus, the inspection laser beam is irradiated onto a plurality of the semiconductor chips such that the semiconductor chips are partially and simultaneously heated. Thermal waves are detected in response to the inspection laser beam and thermal images are generated corresponding to the thermal waves. A surface image is generated by a lock-in thermography technique and hold exponent analysis of the thermal image, thereby generating surface image in which a surface defect is included. Time and accuracy of the surface inspection process is improved.