Abstract: Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technology has made great contributions to the researchof material crystal structure and orientation information,but its spatial resolution is low(which is greater than 100 nanometers),so it is difficult for researchers to characterize nanocrystals. Since the transmission Kikuchi diffrac-tion (TKD) technology was proposed in 2012,it has quickly received great attention in the field of nanomaterialcharacterization due to its high spatial resolution. This article reviewed the development of TKD technology by re-viewing a large number of literatures. The development history of TKD technology was reviewed,and the researchprogress of TKD was also summarized. It mainly includes three parts. Firstly,the working principle of TKD and theinfluence of some important setting parameters are introduced. Secondly,the application of TKD in the fields ofnanocrystalline grains,large deformation metals and oxide films in recent years is introduced. Finally,the futuredevelopment trend of TKD characterization technology is prospected.