The increasingly wide use of digital computers, the world-wide-web and electronic publishing has had a fundamental impact on the way scientists conduct research in every discipline of science. Electron microscopy is no exception. A considerable amount of effort has been devoted to the development of digital imaging acquisition systems for transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Digital image acquisition systems for TEM, including complete systems, have been produced by several companies, including: Advanced Microscopy Techniques (Rowley, MA), JEOL (Peabody, MA), Gatan (Warrendale, PA), Princeton Instruments (Trenton, NJ) and Tietz-Video (Herbststrasse, Gauting, Germany). While most systems are CCD-based, JEOL has also offered a system which is based on the Imaging Plate technology.

The Imaging Plate has the same size as, and is compatible with the camera system for, the 8.09 cm × 99.6 cm electron microscope film. As with film, a latent image is formed on the plate when exposed to electrons. A stack of exposed imaging plates are then taken out of the microscope and scanned by a laser beam in a readout device which converts the latent image to a digital form.