Patent ID: 6888137

Claim:
A scanning charged-particle beam instrument having a specimen stage capable of moving in X- and Y-directions and providing positional information on a plurality of positions, and a charged-particle beam illumination means for illuminating a specimen held on the specimen stage with a charged-particle beam, a scanning means for scanning the charged-particle beam in two dimensions across the specimen in each of the plural positions providing different fields of view, a detector for detecting signals arising from the specimen, and a control means for displaying a scanned image of the specimen in response to an output signal from the detector, said scanning charged-particle beam instrument comprising: a storage means for storing image signals corresponding to plural different fields of view on the specimen together with positional information relating to the plural fields of view on the specimen; a means for displaying plural stored specimen images simultaneously in response to the said stored image signals of corresponding to the plural fields of view; a selecting means for permitting an operator to select a desired specimen image from the displayed plural specimen images; and a moving means for moving the specimen into a position corresponding to the selected specimen image in response to said stored positional information.