Patent 7858936 was granted and assigned to FEI Company on December, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Imprecisely located defects are imaged by milling a series of slices and performing a light, preferential etch to provide a topographical interface between materials having similar secondary electron emission characteristics. The slices are sufficiently small to capture small defects, but are sufficiently large to overcome problems with redeposition.