The Need for Improvements. Though atom probe techniques have impressive atomic-scale analytical capabilities, there are some definite needs for improvement. The needle shape of APFIM specimens is a difficult geometry to make for many types of materials, especially technologically important thin-film materials. Even though 3DAPs collect more data than traditional APs, the analysis volumes are still small by analytical standards: typically there are fewer than 1 million atoms in an image which is about 15nm x 15nm x 50nm. The data collection rate (up to tens of atoms per second) limits the practical size of analyzed volumes to about 1 million atoms. Poor mass resolution makes it difficult to separate ions of similar mass-to-charge ratio in spectra of approximately 20% of samples. Thus, there are three principal areas where improvements are desirable: 1) specimen geometry, 2) data collection rates, and 3) mass resolving power.