Decreasing dimensions and the necessity to understand the structure and composition of materials or devices on a nanometer scale has led to new developments in TEM. Previously EDX analysis had been established as the only analytical technique. In recent years the analytical capabilities of TEM have been augmented with a number of analytical techniques - such as electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), electron holography, Lorentz microscopy, high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF). These have been developed or extended to yet unavailable levels of resolution. The Schottky field-emitters provide stable, reliable, coherent and high-current electron sources that are needed to get the best out of the mentioned analytical techniques.

The development of these analytical capabilities has been a parallel process in many different places and mainly led to dedicated microscopes optimized for one purpose only. This made it almost impossible to get different sets of analytical information from one specimen area simultaneously, and often the data even had to be collected from different specimens.