Patent ID: 7071713

Claim:
A probing method for charged particle beam systems comprising the steps of: operating a charged particle beam system including: a plurality of probes, each of the probes having a tip for contacting a sample, a plurality of first driving units, corresponding respectively to the plurality of probes, for driving each of the probes independently, a sample stage for mounting the sample, a second driving unit for moving the sample stage at least in a Z direction, a third driving unit for moving the sample stage and the plurality of probes in unison, a charged particle beam image obtaining apparatus to irradiate the sample with a charged particle beam, and obtain an image from a secondary charged particle beam resulting from irradiation of the sample, a displaying unit for displaying the image; and an inputting unit for entering information and pointing to locations on the sample from the displayed image; driving the third driving unit until at least one of the probes comes into a field of view containing the image; and driving the second driving unit until a target probing position of the at least one of the probes comes into the field of view containing the image.