Patent ID: 8141168

Claim:
A scanning probe microscope comprising: multiple measuring probes which are facing to a specimen and individually movable in the XY-directions parallel to a surface of the specimen and in the Z-direction perpendicular to the surface, a stage on which the specimen is placed and that is movable at least in the XY-directions, a detecting part that measures a physical quantity in the Z-direction depending on an interaction between the surface of the specimen and the probe, at a time when each of the probes and/or the stage is moved in the XY-directions, an image generating part that produces a surface image of the specimen in response to a detected signal from the detecting part, and a relative position calculating part that obtains the surface image based on each of the probes and obtained by the image generating part, at a time when the stage is moved in the XY-directions before at least measurement of a property of the specimen without changing a relative position between the probes in the XY-directions, and calculates the relative position between the probes by checking the surface images obtained by the probes before at least measurement of a property of the specimen.