Patent ID: 7329868

Claim:
An image-formation apparatus using charged particle beams, comprising: a charged particle source for emitting charged particle beams under various focus conditions; a scan deflector for scanning a charged particle beam emitted from the charged particle source on a sample; a charged particle detector for detecting charged particles emitted from the sample; and a data processing system, configured to perform machine-implemented functions comprising: applying a plurality of noise reduction processings having different noise reduction effects to a detector signal representing an image, obtaining noise amount evaluation values for at least one noise reduction processed signal, with respect to each of a plurality of pixels in the image, selecting the pixels of one of the noise reduction processed signals having smaller noise reduction effect than in another noise reduction processed signal, responsive to the noise amount evaluation value satisfying a predetermined condition, selecting the pixels of the other noise reduction processed signal, responsive to the noise amount evaluation value not satisfying the predetermined condition, and forming a synthesized image based on the selected pixels.