Abstract: After a scan area for observing or processing a mask is set, a computer of the charged particle beam apparatus determines a plurality of scan lines in the scan area by the following steps of: setting a scan line along the outer circumference of the scan area; determining a scan line inside and along the thus set scan line; determining a scan line inside and along the thus determined scan line; and repeating the step of determining a scan line. After the scan lines are determined, the computer controls a scanning circuit to apply an ion beam to the scan lines while thinning out scan lines and/or pixels.

Abstract: A computer sets a process area based on an image obtained by observing a mask, and determines the positions of representative points that form a contour of the process area for each pixel with sub-pixel accuracy that is better than a pixel, the position of each of the representative points being able to be set to either the center position of the pixel or a position displaced therefrom. Furthermore, for the pixels within the process area, the computer sets the center positions of the pixels as the representative points and corrects the positions of the representative points of the pixels within the process area on a sub-pixel basis such that nonuniformity between the representative points is reduced.

Abstract: When scanning by an ion beam in advance an area 24 including a reference hole 23 formed at a position other than the area to be processed 25 of a light-shielding film 21 on a glass substrate 22, a secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions injected into the substrate is detected instead of detecting the secondary ion signal of the atoms included in the base film, and the position 23 of the hole is stored. Then, the area 24 including the hole formed during the processing is scanned and the secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions is detected to determine the current position 26 of the hole, the position of the hole obtained by the previous detection and the current position of the hole are compared, and the amount of shift of the position of the hole is determined. This shifte amount is regarded as the drift amount.

Abstract: In the processing method of the present invention, there is implemented irradiation with a charged particle beam in such a manner that, when executing processing in a uniform manner, when deposition processing or etching processing of a prescribed pattern is carried out using a charged particle beam apparatus, a region of the pattern to be processed is divided up into microscopic regions corresponding to the diameter of the beam, and regulation is performed by scanning circuits etc. with processing proceeding simultaneously for a plurality of patterns within the scanning region in such a manner that the dose amount for each microscopic region becomes equal.

Abstract: In the processing method of the present invention, there is implemented irradiation with a charged particle beam in such a manner that, when executing processing in a uniform manner, when deposition processing or etching processing of a prescribed pattern is carried out using a charged particle beam apparatus, a region of the pattern to be processed is divided up into microscopic regions corresponding to the diameter of the beam, and regulation is performed by scanning circuits etc. with processing proceeding simultaneously for a plurality of patterns within the scanning region in such a manner that the dose amount for each microscopic region becomes equal.