Development of future semiconductor processes and improving existing ones requires a strong capability to identify and eliminate the sources of particle defects. The current industry approach for accomplishing this task is to analyze the particles on the wafer surface. The most commonly used technique for this purpose is SEM with EDX (SEM/EDX). This approach provides information about defect chemistry and morphology, which in turn provides a direct path to the reevaluation of processes and hardware parts needed to determine the root cause of a problem. However, the SEM/EDX has three fundamental limitations: (a) it is a large volume technique and therefore, the sensitivity can be insufficient for sub micron particles and thin patches; (b) there is no chemical bonding information due to poor energy resolution; (c) charging problem for dielectrics. In some cases there is a need to use other techniques to support or substitute the EDX results.