Spot cleaning of particles after inspection

A method for removing undesirable contaminants from a substrate surface comprising the steps of:

• scanning a substrate surface to locate a plurality of defects thereon the substrate surface;
• identifying x, y coordinates of each of the plurality of defects;
• determining x, y coordinates of any substrate surface topography;
• comparing the x, y coordinates of each of the plurality of defects to the x, y coordinates of the substrate surface topography to determine whether each of the plurality of defects is a defect selected from the group consisting of a killer defect, a non-killer defect and a light point defect;
• allowing those of the plurality of defects identified as non-killer defects to remain on the substrate surface;
• allowing those of the plurality of defects identified as light point defects to remain on the substrate surface;
• and
• removing those of the plurality of defects identified as killer defects using a laser by positioning the killer defect in the direct path of a laser beam emitted from the laser whereby the laser beam contacts the killer defect to enable selective removal of the killer defect by laser ablation while leaving the substrate surface area surrounding the killer defect substantially intact.