Patent ID: 8907303

Claim:
A stage device comprising: a rotary table for mounting a specimen directly or via a specimen holder; a rotation mechanism for rotating the rotary table; a translation mechanism for translating the rotary table; a stage controller for controlling, according to a rotation angle command value inputted from outside of the stage device and a translation position command value inputted from outside of the stage device, the rotation mechanism and the translation mechanism, respectively; a marker to be provided on one of the specimen, the specimen holder and the rotary table for making the position and direction measurable; a marker-position-and-direction measuring unit for measuring the position and direction of the marker when the rotating mechanism and the translation mechanism are operated according to a predetermined operation pattern; a rotation center identifying unit for identifying the position of the rotation center of the rotary table from the measuring results; a correction-amount-table creating unit for generating rotation angle correction value to correct the rotation error of the rotary table, and translation correction value to correct the positional variation of the rotation center of the rotary table, relative to a rotation angle; a correction value table for recording the rotation angle correction value and the translation correction value; and a rotation mechanism controller and a translation mechanism controller for obtaining from the correction value table the rotation angle correction value and the translation correction value, respectively, which are associated with one of the rotation angle command value inputted and an actual rotation angle, then controlling the rotation mechanism and the translation mechanism, respectively, using these correction values obtained.