Patent ID: 7009192

Claim:
A charged particle beam application apparatus having a stage device used to move a sample in at least three axial directions, a charged particle beam optical system having an optical axis inclined from a surface of said sample to irradiate the sample with a charged particle beam, and a display device that displays an image formed by the charged particle beam optical system, the apparatus comprising: a correction table indicating a relationship between focal distance and a position of said sample and a relationship between optical conditions for said charged particle beam optical system and a position of said sample, and an arithmetic section that calculates the position of said sample, the arithmetic section calculating the amount of three-dimensional correction for the position of said sample using said correction table, so that when the focal distance of said charged particle beam changes, a position of a target on said sample is placed in the center of a visual field of a screen of said display device, wherein said correction table is created by assuming that a position [Z] of said sample in a Z direction is expressed using a linear expression with a position [X] of said sample in an X direction, a position [Y] of said sample in a Y direction, and optical conditions [P] for the charged beam optical system.