The invention relates to a method for inspecting a
semiconductor sample (30) using a secondary-
ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) with a material-removing
focused ion beam (13), having the following steps: - positioning the
semiconductor sample (30) on a sample stage (20); - carrying out an analysis scan by irradiating a region-of-interest (ROI) (31) in a
semiconductor structure (36) on the semiconductor sample (30) with the
ion beam (13); - registering the secondary ions in a
mass spectrometer unit (17) in order to generate an electronic image (41) and / or other
data set for characterizing the
semiconductor structure (36) in the region of the irradiated ROI (31); - using a semiconductor sample (30), with a
semiconductor structure (36) and at least one positioning marking (33, 34, 35), and a sample stage (20) which can be moved in at least two dimensions relative to the
ion beam (13); - providing navigation data for the semiconductor sample (30) with the
semiconductor structure (36) and the positioning marking (33, 34, 35); - carrying out a preliminary scan by means of a data-based navigation to a position marking (33, 34, 35) and irradiating the region of the semiconductor sample (30) with the
ion beam (13) using a large scanning region; - adjusting an internal coordinate
system for the sample stage (20) by comparing the position of the position marking (33, 34, 35) on the sample stage (20), said position being derived from the navigation data, with the position ascertained by the preliminary scan; - positioning the
ion beam (13) over the ROI (31) to be analyzed by means of a data-based navigation of the sample stage (20) and / or laterally deflecting the
ion beam (13) using the navigation data; and - carrying out a SIMS analysis scan using a scanning region which is reduced in comparison to the preliminary scan.