CHARGED PARTICLE BEAM APPARATUS

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a defect observation method of reducing risk of dielectric breakdown and a charged particle beam apparatus for solving the problem in which: in recent years, as progress of microfabrication and high integration in semiconductor manufacturing process, observation object positions tend to be dense; and in such a situation, when performing the observation using the conventional technique regarding precharge, since scans of an electron beam in the precharge may overlap with one another, an electrification potential of the sample surface exceeds a dielectric breakdown limit voltage, causing the dielectric breakdown in the region where the scans of the electron beam overlap.SOLUTION: When observing a sample using a technique regarding precharge, a plurality of images are imaged in one electrification control process. That is, observation object positions whose precharge scanning regions overlap with one another are grouped into groups of the observation object positions for each of which the electrification control is to be performed at a time. And then, the individual electrification control process is performed for each group, and thereby risk of dielectric breakdown is minimized.