The role of focused ion beam (FIB) fabrication in the development of sample preparation techniques for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been described in this paper. Since the repeatability of FIB sampling and TEM observations has become important, the microsampling and in situ lift-out methods are currently in wide use. Furthermore, artifacts induced during FIB milling and the consequent difficulties with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy are detailed. The remarkably increased capability of scanning ion microscopy and its applications are also discussed.