While semiconductors have been studied using microwave radiation since the 1950s, it was not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that John Warman at the Delft University of Technology exploited microwaves for time-resolved measurements of photoconductivity. The first reports used electrons then photons to generate charges in fluids. The technique was later refined to study semiconductors by Kunst and Beck at the Hahn Meitner Institute in Berlin.
Delft remains a significant center for TRMC, however the technique is now used at a number of institutions around the world, notably the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Kyoto University.