All scanning electron microscopes, whether they are in laboratory or on the production line, slowly lose performance as the instrument is used. This loss of performance is due to a whole array of contributing factors including misalignments, contamination and increases in source diameter. Identifying a loss in “sharpness” easily recognizes this performance decrease. Reference Material 8091 (RM 8091) is intended primarily for use in routinely checking the sharpness performance of scanning electron microscopes (Fig. 1). RM 8091 is designed to be used in conjunction with the SPECTEL SEM Monitor Program, the NIST Kurtosis program,3 or the University of Tennessee SMART program. RM 8091 is supplied as a small, approximately 2 mm x 2 mm diced semiconductor chip. This sample is capable of being mounted directly on to a wafer, wafer piece or specimen stub for insertion into a laboratory scanning electron microscope or wafer inspection scanning electron microscope.