Patent ID: 7375327

Claim:
A wear measurement method by which a quantity of wear on the surface of a measurement sample formed with a surface layer on a base material is measured, comprising: a reference-sample detection step of repeatedly recording a ratio between a signal intensity caused by an element in a base layer of the reference sample and a signal intensity caused by an element in the surface layer of the reference sample, which are obtained by etching a reference sample with the same layer structure as that of the measurement sample before substantial wear in the direction of the film thickness for preliminary wear and by applying excited ionization radiation on the reference sample during being etched and by detecting charged particles generated from the reference sample, and obtaining a relation between the quantities of preliminary wear and the ratios of the reference sample; a measurement-sample detection step of detecting ratios between signal intensities caused by elements in the base layer of the measurement sample and signal intensities caused by elements in the surface layer of the measurement sample, which are obtained by applying the excited ionization radiation on the measurement sample after surface wear and by detecting charged particles generated from the measurement sample; and a step of obtaining positional information on the surface of the measurement sample after wear by comparing the relation obtained in the reference sample detection step with the ratios detected in the measurement sample detection step.