Abstract: Devices and methods that are useful for fault isolation in microelectronic devices are provided. A portion of a microelectronic device to be analyzed is grounded through the creation of a cavity in the device surface. Voltage contrast provides the ability to identify individual failure sites on the microelectronic device. The grounding of the portion of the device can be reversed and a different portion of the microelectronic device grounded for additional voltage contrast analysis and fault identification. These processes can be repeated a number of times to probe multiple chained structures.