Patent ID: 8495759
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: G01Q

Abstract:
1. A probe aligning method for a probe microscope comprising: a cantilever including a probe provided at a tip end thereof; a rough movement mechanism and a fine movement mechanism which are provided to control a distance between the cantilever and a sample; observation means for observing a surface of the sample and a position of the probe provided at the tip end of the cantilever; and a moving mechanism for relatively moving the sample and the probe, the probe being brought one of close to and into contact with the surface of the sample to measure one of shape information and physical information of the surface of the sample, to thereby align the probe with an arbitrary observation position of the sample, the probe aligning method comprising: determining, by the observation means, position of the probe provided at the tip end of the cantilever over the surface of the sample to perform marking; moving the probe from the position over the surface of the sample to an actual observation position that is one of close to and into contact with the surface of the sample to perform probe microscope observation; determining the actual observation position; determining, in a first observation view region, a relative positional relationship specific to the probe microscope between the position of the probe above the surface of the sample and the actual observation position; storing a determination result of the probe microscope-specific relative positional relationship in the first observation view region, which is determined at a time of first observation; and aligning, for observation operations corresponding to subsequent samples, an observation position of the subsequent samples with a position at which the probe microscope observation is assumed to be actually performed, based on the position of the probe at a time of observation and the stored determination result of the probe microscope-specific relative positional relationship in the first observation view region when subsequently aligning the probe with the observation position of the subsequent sample, wherein the aligning comprises: