Patent Document ID: 20120045097
Application ID: 13285229
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for high accuracy beam placement and navigation to a feature of interest within a local area on a sample surface, comprising: loading a sample into a particle beam system; acquiring a first image of a local area on the sample surface using a first field of view, the first field of view being large enough to insure that the location of a feature of interest is included in the image based considering the accuracy of the imaging system, the first image including the location of the feature of interest and one or more alignment points near the feature of interest, and said first image also having a resolution such that the image pixel size is equal to or smaller than the alignment points; superimposing a coordinate system overlay on the first image, the coordinate system overlay representing idealized coordinates of features on the sample surface; registering the first image with the coordinate system using a plurality of alignment points in the first image and corresponding idealized elements in the coordinate system overlay; after the image and the coordinate system have been registered, navigate to the location of the feature of interest in the acquired first image using the known coordinates from the coordinate system; identifying one or more transfer fiducials in the first image, wherein said transfer fiducials comprise unique visible features on the sample surface that can be easily identified; recording the offset between the transfer fiducials and the feature of interest; acquiring a second image of the sample surface using a second field of view, said second field of view being smaller than the first field of view and including the feature of interest and the one or more transfer fiducials; identifying the one or more transfer fiducials in the second image; using the recorded offset between the transfer fiducials and the feature of interest to precisely navigate to the location of the feature of interest.