Michael Haschke was born 1948, his schooling was combined with teachings for metalworker. After the study of physics at the TU Dresden which was finished 1974 with PhD he started his career – at first in the Academy of Science of GDR, branch for scientific instrumentation and then in different companies. From the beginning of the 80th he was working in the field of X-Ray analytics. During that time he was responsible for the introduction of energy-dispersive X-Ray spectrometers (EDS) in GDR, for the buildup of the X-Ray product line in Spectro, Kleve including the excitation with polarized radiation, the use of small spectrometers for jewelry analysis and the introduction of poly-capillary based instruments for µ-XRF in Röntgenanalytik Messtechnik GmbH, Taunusstein in close cooperation with EDAX, USA, the use of µ-XRF as an additional excitation source for electron microscopes in IfG, Berlin and finally for the introduction of a complete product line for µ-XRF in Bruker Nano, GmbH, Berlin. This responsibility was realized as deputy-director or product manager in the different companies. He understood the introduction of new instruments as a combination of the development of the instruments with the introduction into the market. Therefore there is a big experience both for instrumentation as well as for application.

• XRF-Basics.- Main Components of X-Ray Spectrometers.- Special Requirements for µ-XRF.- Quantification.- Sample Preparation.- Relations to Other Analytical Methods.- Applications.