The present invention provides a method for analyzing critical defects in analog integrated circuits. The method for analyzing critical defects, among other possible steps, may include fault testing a power field effect transistor (120) portion of an analog integrated circuit (115) to obtain electrical failure data. The method may further include performing an in-line optical inspection of the analog integrated circuit (115) to obtain physical defect data, and correlating the electrical failure data and physical defect data to analyze critical defects.