What HREM Research does

HREM Research Inc. is a privately held Japanese software company founded in 2001 by Dr. Kazuo Ishizuka, Fellow of the Microscopy Society of America, that develops specialized tools for quantitative electron microscopy. Its flagship product, xHREM (also marketed as MacHREM/WinHREM), is a world-leading HR-(S)TEM image simulation suite for Mac and Windows, supplemented by a STEM Extension with NVIDIA GPU acceleration. The company's commercial portfolio consists almost entirely of plug-ins for Gatan's DigitalMicrograph platform — the de facto standard EM analysis environment — covering strain analysis (GPA), phase measurement (QPt), noise reduction and super resolution (HREM-Filters), spectroscopy processing (MSA, DeConvEELS, FTSR), quantitative STEM (qDPC, QED with ALCHEMI mode), electron holography (HoloLive!, qHolo, IWFR), diffraction analysis (PPA, Jitterbug), and image alignment (SmartAlign), with a parallel set of free plug-ins (IPU, HREM Mouse, HREM Picker, Spectrum Wobbler) for ecosystem acquisition.

The company monetizes through perpetual software licenses sold directly via its website and through an Affiliate Site Program that places HREM software at 23+ leading electron microscopy facilities across the USA, Europe, Asia, and Australia at discounted institutional rates in exchange for exposure to outside users. An ancillary VG FEG-tip replacement hardware service (US$980 per base) is sold to operators of legacy VG microscopes, including IBM, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Toray Research Center. The company maintains a co-development partnership with CEMES-CNRS in Toulouse, France, which has produced the HoloLive! and qHolo electron holography tools. HREM Research is founder-owned with no external institutional investors and operates offices in Higashimatsuyama (Saitama) and Tokyo (Chiyoda), Japan, while serving a global research customer base.

Name

HREM Research

Legal name

HREM Research Inc.

Website

https://hremresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

HREM Research Inc. is a Japanese private company that develops quantitative electron microscopy software, including the world-leading xHREM image simulation suite and a suite of DigitalMicrograph plug-ins, sold primarily to academic, government, and industrial electron microscopy research facilities worldwide.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Nibancho

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses (xHREM/MacHREM/WinHREM): Perpetual software licenses for the flagship HREM image simulation product, available for both Mac and Windows platforms
2. DM Plug-in Sales: Commercial plugins for DigitalMicrograph including QED, qDPC, qHolo, GPA, SmartAlign, MSA, and others, with various modules and versions
3. Affiliate Site Program: Discounted software access to electron microscope facilities in exchange for exposing software to outside users, creating recurring institutional relationships
4. VG FEG-tip Replacement Service: Hardware service for replacing emission tips on VG FEG bases, priced at US$980 per base with warranty

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

HREM Research develops specialized software for quantitative electron microscopy, including the flagship xHREM HR-(S)TEM image simulation suite for Mac and Windows, and a comprehensive suite of DigitalMicrograph (Gatan) plug-ins covering strain analysis, phase measurement, noise reduction, spectroscopy, electron holography, diffraction, and quantitative STEM. The company also offers a VG FEG-tip hardware replacement service for VG field emission gun bases.

Product overview

HREM Research Inc., founded in 2001 by Dr. Kazuo Ishizuka, specializes in developing products and services for Quantitative Electron Microscopy. The company's flagship product is xHREM, a world-leading HR-(S)TEM image simulation suite for Mac and Windows. HREM Research's product portfolio consists primarily of DigitalMicrograph (DM) plug-ins organized into three categories: commercial DM Plug-ins (GPA for strain analysis, QPt for phase measurement, HREM-Filters for noise reduction and Realtime filtering, DeConvEELS/DeConvEELS SI for spectroscopy, MSA for multivariate analysis, qDPC for differential phase contrast, QED for quantitative electron diffraction, electron holography tools including HoloLive! and qHolo for phase reconstruction, PPA and Jitterbug for peak analysis, and supporting modules like IWFR, FTSR, and SmartAlign); DM Free Plug-ins (IPU, HREM Mouse, HREM Picker, Spectrum Wobbler); and the xHREM core simulation platform with STEM Extension for DPC signal calculation and GPU acceleration. All commercial plug-ins are compatible with Gatan's DigitalMicrograph platform, and the company also offers a VG FEG-tip hardware replacement service and an Affiliate Site Program for electron microscopy facilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• xHREM: World-leading HREM image simulation software suite (HR-(S)TEM image simulation).
• Mac/WinHREM
• DigitalMicrograph Plug-ins

Products and services

• xHREM (Mac/WinHREM) Image Simulation Suite World-leading HR-(S)TEM image simulation software for Mac and Windows, providing image simulation capabilities for high-resolution electron microscopy, including STEM Extension for DPC signal calculation and GPU acceleration support. Built for materials science researchers and electron microscopy facilities.
• qHolo for DigitalMicrograph Offline quantitative analysis plug-in for off-axis electron holograms, designed for analysis of magnetic and electric fields at the nanoscale. Jointly developed with CEMES-CNRS, Toulouse, France.
• HoloLive! for DigitalMicrograph Real-time phase reconstruction plug-in for electron holography that reconstructs and displays phase from electron holograms live at the microscope during experiments, supporting live reference hologram correction and live phase unwrapping. Jointly developed with CEMES-CNRS.
• qDPC for DigitalMicrograph Quantitative Differential Phase Contrast analysis plug-in that provides boundary-artifact-free phase contrast images by integrating DPC signals, ideal for Cs-corrected microscopes. Won Microscopy Today Innovation Awards 2018.
• SmartAlign for DigitalMicrograph Image alignment plug-in that corrects slow instability of probe scanning system (scan distortion) from fast-acquisition multi-frame images using rigid and non-rigid image alignment to restore resolution and improve image quality.
• QED for DigitalMicrograph Quantitative Electron Diffraction plug-in for DigitalMicrograph. Version 2.0 includes ALCHEMI mode for nanometer-scale dopant analysis using Atom Location by Channeling Enhanced Microanalysis.
• GPA (Geometric Phase Analysis) for DigitalMicrograph Strain analysis plug-in for DigitalMicrograph that analyzes geometric phase to extract strain maps from HRTEM and STEM images.
• QPt (Quantitative Phase Measurement) for DigitalMicrograph Quantitative phase measurement plug-in for DigitalMicrograph providing tools for phase imaging and analysis.
• HREM-Filters for DigitalMicrograph Noise reduction and resolution improvement plug-in suite with Realtime filter module for low-dose experiments, available in Pro and Lite versions.
• DeConvEELS / DeConvEELS SI for DigitalMicrograph Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy deconvolution plug-ins that improve spectral resolution and signal-to-noise ratio in EELS data.
• MSA (Multivariate Statistical Analysis) for DigitalMicrograph Multivariate Statistical Analysis plug-in for spectrum imaging data, including Local PCA capability for spatially or spectrally local processing.
• Electron Holography Tools for DigitalMicrograph Suite of electron holography plug-ins including HoloDark for hologram processing and IWFR (Iterative Wave Function Reconstruction) for exit wave function reconstruction assuming defocus steps with iterative refinement.
• PPA (Peak Pairs Analysis) for DigitalMicrograph Peak analysis plug-in with Distortion Analysis for analyzing peak distances, angles, and structural unit rotations.
• Jitterbug for DigitalMicrograph Peak identification and analysis tool for atomic resolution STEM images that automatically detects and characterizes atomic positions.
• FTSR (Fourier Transform Spectroscopy Reconstruction) for DigitalMicrograph Fourier transform-based spectroscopy reconstruction tool for spectrum imaging data.
• VG FEG-tip Replacement Service Hardware service replacing emission tips on VG FEG bases, including tip polishing, re-welding, and warranty. Priced at US$980.00 per base with payment by bank transfer within net 30 days.
• Affiliate Site Program Institutional licensing program offering substantial discounts on HREM software to electron microscope facilities that agree to expose the software to outside users, with 23+ affiliate sites worldwide including ASU, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and others.

Quantifiable outcome

• STEM calculation speedup of tens of times using NVIDIA GPU compared to single-core CPU
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• CEMES-CNRS, Toulouse, FrancecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJoint development of electron holography plugins including HoloLive! (real-time holography at microscope) and qHolo (offline holography analysis). Both products were co-developed with Martin Hytch's team at CEMES-CNRS.
• Gatan Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationHREM software products are plugins for DigitalMicrograph, Gatan's electron microscopy data analysis software. HREM maintains an affiliate relationship with Gatan's ecosystem.
• Affiliate Site Partner InstitutionsmajorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor23+ institutions including Arizona State University, UC Berkeley, McMaster University, Imperial College London, Stanford University, Tsinghua University, and others participate in the Affiliate Site Program to provide HREM software to their users at discounted rates.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• National Instruments (NI / Emerson): Test, measurement, and data acquisition software/hardware vendor. Comparable in a broad sense as a scientific engineering software provider serving research and instrumentation customers, though not directly competing in electron microscopy analysis.
• MathWorks (MATLAB): Scientific computing platform widely used for image analysis, signal processing, and microscopy data workflows. Comparable as a general-purpose scientific software platform that materials science researchers sometimes use as an alternative or complement to specialized plug-ins like HREM's.

Broad incumbents

• JEOL Ltd. Major electron microscope manufacturer that also maintains a demonstration facility partnering with HREM. Comparable as a broader electron microscopy ecosystem player; HREM serves JEOL's user base through its Affiliate Site Program.
• Bruker Corporation: Scientific instruments vendor with X-ray, electron microscopy, and materials characterization product lines. Comparable as an incumbent serving overlapping materials characterization and analytical instrumentation customers.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific: Owns the FEI electron microscopy business and a broad scientific instruments portfolio. Comparable as a large incumbent serving the same electron microscopy and materials science research customer base that HREM's software addresses.
• Hitachi High-Tech: Manufactures electron microscopes and analytical instruments. Comparable as a broad incumbent in electron microscopy with overlapping research-facility customers, though HREM operates in software rather than hardware.
• Gatan (AMETEK): Owner of DigitalMicrograph, the platform on which all HREM Research plug-ins run. Gatan is the dominant incumbent in electron microscopy data acquisition and analysis software; HREM's products are entirely built as add-ons to Gatan's ecosystem.
• Oxford Instruments: Provider of electron microscopy and materials analysis instruments, including nanoanalysis and EDS. Comparable as an incumbent serving similar materials research and microscopy facilities, though primarily on the hardware side.

Emerging players

• HyperSpy / open-source microscopy ecosystem: Open-source Python library for electron microscopy data analysis, increasingly adopted in academic environments. Comparable as an emerging alternative in the same quantitative electron microscopy analysis space that HREM's plug-ins address, with the inverse business model (free vs. commercial).

Direct peers

• Digital Surf: Provides Mountains® surface analysis and metrology software widely used with scanning probe and electron microscopy data. Comparable as a specialized scientific image-analysis software vendor selling into microscopy and materials research customers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HREM Research