Patent ID: 7214936
Filing Date: 2007-05-08
Classification: H01J

Abstract:
1. A charged particle beam apparatus, comprising: a charged particle source, a charged particle optical system for converging a primary charged particle beam emitted from said charged particle source, and scanning said primary charged particle beam on a sample, and secondary-signal detection means for detecting a secondary signal generated from said sample by said scanning of said primary charged particle beam, a sample image being acquired using said secondary signal detected by said secondary-signal detection means, wherein there are provided acquisition means for acquiring a plurality of sample images with respect to field-of-view including a dimension-measuring domain, said plurality of sample images having different focusing conditions, determination means for evaluating image sharpness degrees of partial domains including said dimension-measuring domain with respect to said plurality of sample images acquired, and determining, from said plurality of sample images, a sample image whose image sharpness degree is the highest, and measurement means for measuring dimension of a predetermined domain from said sample image determined.