Patent ID: 7888638

Claim:
A method of measuring a dimension of a circuit pattern, which is formed on a substrate, using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), comprising the steps of: (a) inputting a center coordinate of an SEM image area including a circuit pattern having a dimension to be measured out of the circuit pattern formed on the substrate, and design information of the circuit pattern including the circuit pattern having the dimension to be measured, and formed on the substrate; (b) setting a measurement object area including an edge of the circuit pattern having the dimension to be measured, using the center coordinate of the SEM imaging area and the design information input, and setting an imaging area and imaging condition for imaging an area including the measurement object area with the scanning electron microscope; (c) setting an imaging sequence for imaging the imaging area with the scanning electron microscope for measuring the dimension of the circuit pattern; (d) imaging the circuit pattern formed on the substrate with the scanning electron microscope based on the imaging condition and the imaging sequence; and (e) processing the image obtained by imaging to measure the dimension of the circuit pattern, wherein, step (b) includes the steps of setting, as the measurement object area, an area including the edge of the circuit pattern in the vicinity of the position at which the dimension of the circuit pattern is measured, and setting in accordance with a direction of the edge of the circuit pattern included in the area, a direction of continuous scanning of an electron beam scanned in the scanning electron microscope.