CHINESE scientists have unveiled the world’s first artificial intelligence-driven transmission electron microscope (TEM) system, a breakthrough that shifts the field from traditional manual operation to fully autonomous, intelligent research.

Named “Aeye-1,” the system was developed by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, in collaboration with the CAS Shenyang Institute of Automation.

The innovation has successfully passed a rigorous evaluation by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation. An expert panel unanimously confirmed that the system is a global first, placing China at the forefront of advanced scientific instrumentation.

Advanced scientific instruments are vital to national technological self-reliance and security. As exploration pushes deeper into the ultra-microscopic world, TEMs have become indispensable for studying advanced materials, clean energy, and life sciences. Yet, since the invention of the transmission electron microscope a century ago, the technology has largely depended on manual operation — leading to persistent bottlenecks such as low efficiency, high subjectivity, and difficulty generating accurate, large-scale quantitative data.

To solve this critical challenge, the CAS research team spent years integrating both software and hardware development for the TEM system. By overcoming five core technical hurdles — including embodied intelligence for high-vacuum sample transfer, autonomous electron optics alignment, nanoscale precision positioning, autonomous imaging and intelligent analysis, and system state perception with intelligent scheduling — the team successfully built Aeye-1. Described as a “smart eye” for the microscopic world, the system enables fully unmanned, intelligent operation across the entire workflow, from sample supply to imaging and data analysis.

The AI-driven microscope is expected to accelerate breakthroughs in fields such as materials genomics — a cutting-edge approach that uses massive data libraries to speed up the discovery of new materials — as well as green energy development and life sciences.(SD-Agencies)