motions of the specimen stage in an energy compensated position sensitive atom probe ecoposap this colinearity also provides for the fabrication of a longer sample 100 facilitating resharpening of the tip 106 of shard 100 coatings have previously been deposited on nonconductive samples 100 for the apfim analysis to improve the electrical properties of the samples 100 in the illustrated prior art method sample 10 was sputter coated with about 50 nm of cr after fabrication of tip 106 analysis of the sample tips 106 after cr deposition demonstrated a lack of control in achieving a uniform thin coating on a feature with a high aspect ratio although pt is not generally the first choice of coating materials due to its low vapor pressure and high evaporation field the ion assisted deposition of pt traces is easily accomplished in the fib platinum traces were deposited on later samples 100 along the sides of the sample 100 and between the sample 100 and the stainless steel pin 102 in an attempt to improve the conductivity of the sample 100 the pt traces were generally several micrometers in width up to 100 u03bcm in length and about 200 u03bcm thick platinum was also deposited to fill in holes and craters created during the fabrication process it is.