Patent ID: 7872231

Claim:
A sample aligning method comprising: processing an object with a charged particle beam projector; defining a sample in the object at a first location in a coordinate system defined by mutually perpendicular first (I), second (II) and third (III) axes; scribing, with the charged particle beam projector, a first line-marking on the sample, which lies in a line of intersection between a I-II plane and a I-III plane in the coordinate system, and a second line-marking on the sample, which lies in a line of intersection between a II-III plane and the I-III plane in the coordinate system; transporting the sample off the object to a second location in the coordinate system; and aligning the sample at the second location, under observation through an observing device, by a controller which performs at least one of the following processes (a), (b) and (c): (a) determining whether one of the first and second line-markings looks from the observing device deviated from the I-III plane; and when the one of the first and second line-markings is determined to look from the observing device deviated from the I-III plane, causing the sample to shift along the II axis to thereby shift the one of the first and second line-markings along the II axis until the one of the first and second line-markings looks from the observing device in agreement with the I-III plane, (b) determining whether the first and second line-markings look from the observing device linearly continuous to each other; and when the first and second line-markings are determined not to look from the observing device linearly continuous to each other, causing the sample to rotate around a line of intersection between a I-II plane and the I-III plane until the first and second line-markings look from the observing device linearly continuous to each other, and (c) determining whether the first line-marking looks from the observing device parallel to the I-III plane; and when the first line-marking is determined not to look from the observing device parallel to the I-III plane, causing the sample to rotate around a line of intersection between an II-III plane and the I-III plane until the first line-marking looks from the observing device parallel to the I-III plane.