Patent ID: 7105815

Claim:
A method for collecting defect images of a specimen, comprising the steps of: setting an electron optical system of an electron microscope to a first imaging condition which includes setting of an acceleration voltage of a primary electron beam for irradiating the specimen in a range of a few hundred eV to a few KeV; setting a visual field of the electron microscope in such a manner that the position of a defect to be reviewed falls within the visual field of the electron microscope set to the first imaging condition, using data about the position of the defect to be reviewed, which is obtained beforehand by inspecting the specimen using an inspecting device; imaging the position of the defect to be reviewed set within the visual field, using the electron microscope set for the first imaging condition to acquire a first image of the visual field including the defect position; processing the acquired first image to determine whether or not the defect is present; when the defect is present in the first image, storing an image of the defect in a memory; when the defect is not present in the first image, setting the electron optical system to a second imaging condition which includes setting of the acceleration voltage of the primary electron beam for irradiating the specimen in a range of a few tens KeV to a few hundreds KeV; and when the defect is not present in the first image, imaging the visual field by the electron microscope under the set second imaging condition to acquire a second image of the visual field including information under the surface of the specimen.