Patent ID: 7391039

Claim:
A semiconductor processing method for processing a surface of a semiconductor substrate by scanning of a focused ion beam, the method comprising: a focused ion beam irradiation step of irradiating the focused ion beam to process the surface of the semiconductor substrate; an electron beam irradiation step of irradiating an electron beam having a predetermined transmission property to part of the surface of the semiconductor substrate which is processed by the focused ion beam; an observation step of detecting a first secondary electron image generated by irradiation of the electron beam and a secondary ion image and a second secondary electron image which are generated by irradiation of the focused ion beam and observing the images; and a processing control step of determining, based on a contrast intensity of the first secondary electron image, the secondary ion image or the second secondary electron image which has been detected in the observation step and which shows an image of a predetermined target located inside the semiconductor substrate, a distance from the part of the semiconductor substrate surface which is processed by the focused ion beam to the predetermined target and controlling a processing progress by controlling an output of the focused ion beam according to a result of the determination, wherein in the processing control step, scanning of the focused ion beam is performed with an output of the focused ion beam stopped in part of the semiconductor substrate in which the contrast intensity has reached a predetermined level, thereby controlling the processing progress.