Patent 7633303 was granted and assigned to Hitachi on December, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Efficiency of a charging processing of an insulator sample is improved. And, an electron optical system is adjusted according to a contact resistance value of the insulator sample. Breakdown of a sample is performed before the charging processing, and then, the charging processing is performed. A control parameter of the electron optical system is selected using a result of a resistance value of the sample for checking the breakdown.