There has been an increasing demand for machining of precision parts recently. In order to meet such requirements, nano-machining systems with on-machine
surface profile measuring function are required. This paper presents a newly developed on-machine shape measuring system with an optical probe. In this system, an astigmatic focus error detection method is applied to the optical probe. In addition, the influence of the uneven reflection from the surface can be reduced by using two quadrant photodiodes. The results of surface profile measurement confirm that the system developed provides a resolution of 1 nm scale and a repeatability of approximately 50 nm.