FOP is a simplified variant of feature-oriented scanning (FOS). With FOP, no topographical image of a surface is acquired. Instead, a probe movement by surface features is only carried out from the start surface point A (neighbourhood of the start feature) to the destination point B (neighbourhood of the destination feature) along some route that goes through intermediate features of the surface.

To be distinguished are “blind” FOP, when the coordinates of features used for probe movement are unknown in advance, and FOP by existing feature “map”, when the relative coordinates of all features are known, for example, if they were obtained during preliminary FOS. Probe movement by a navigation structure is a combination of the above-highlighted methods.

The FOP method may be used in “bottom-up” nanotechnology to implement high-precision movement of the nanolithograph/nanoassembler probe along the substrate surface. Moreover, once made along some route, FOP may be then exactly repeated the required number of times. After movement to the specified position, an influence on the surface or manipulation of a surface object (nanoparticle, molecule, atom) is performed. All the operations are carried out in automatic mode. With multiprobe instruments, an FOP approach makes it possible to apply any number of specialised technological and/or analytical probes successively to a surface feature/object or to a specified point of the feature/object neighbourhood. That opens up the prospect of building a complex nanofabrication consisting of a large number of technological, measuring, and checking operations.