The ultimate goal of this project is to develop a manipulation system enabling unskilled operators to deal with objects in micron or sub-micron size at an environment of scanning electron microscope (SEM). Described in this paper are the results achieved in the first phase, which is focused on conceptual design, prototype development of a twin-arm micro-fabrication system, and its performance evaluation at a number of field tests. The system is modularized into the manipulation unit, the control unit and man-machine interface. The manipulation unit is further comprised of a twin-arm manipulator and a specimen stage driven by PZT actuators and magnifier elements with three degrees of freedom. The control unit provides a two-way communication capability that delivers force and visual information to the operator, and at the same time to interpret the movement instruction to an appropriate speed and distance for the arm to match the SEM magnification. The image processing also makes it available to automatically track an arbitrarily shaped object within the SEM scope and to generate the tool path. The man-machine interface, equipped with force feedback control, synchronizes the movements between the joysticks (input tool) and manipulator arms and offers the operator the intuitive feelings of contact and resistance. Absorbing the mechanical/optical errors by above-mentioned functions, the system allows the operator to concurrently conduct fabrication and observation without paying much attention to the changes in magnification and other operational conditions.