Patent ID: 8442300

Claim:
A charged particle beam apparatus, including: a function for detecting secondary charged particles generated from a specimen illuminated by a charged particle beam; a charged particle optical system for obtaining image data; a function for counting the number of predetermined patterns that appear between a specific starting point and an ending point on said image data, counting means for counting the number of said predetermined patterns with respect to said image data; information inputting means for setting a unit vector for specifying a coordinate system to represent said starting point and an address of said ending point, the unit vector being for setting a detection estimating area of said specimen; a calculating device which executes pattern matching between said image data in said detection estimating area and said predetermined pattern; and displaying means for displaying said image data, wherein said counting means counts the number of said predetermined patterns according to said unit vector, said calculating device sets a detection estimating area in a predetermined range that is an integer multiple of said unit vector, and said calculating device calculates a number of patterns for which there is no pattern matching with said predetermined pattern in said detection estimating area, and a number of patterns for which there is pattern matching with said predetermined pattern in said detection estimating area.