Keithley Instruments is a measurement and instrument company headquartered in

Solon, Ohio Solon ( ) is a city in southeastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 24,262 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A suburb of Cleveland, it is part of the Cleveland metropolitan area. History In 1820, the first ...

, that develops, manufactures, markets, and sells data acquisition products, as well as complete systems for high-volume production and assembly testing. In September, 2010, the company agreed to sell itself to the

Danaher Corporation Danaher Corporation is an American global conglomerate founded in 1984 by brothers Steven and Mitchell Rales. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the company designs, manufactures, and markets medical, industrial, and commercial products and ...

, a

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

–based conglomerate, for $21.60 per share. It was soon merged with Tektronix, Inc, which had been acquired by Danaher in 2007, and now exists wholly as a brand of Tektronix.

History

Joseph F. Keithley founded Keithley Instrument in 1946. His first product, the "Phantom Repeater," amplified low-level electric signals so that they could be measured by more standard equipment. The device was used by physicists, chemists, and engineers in the development of hearing aids and amplifiers. The product enjoyed some success in sales, but it was the next product, an electrometer, that clinched the future for Keithley's fledgling company.

General

The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets electronic instruments and systems geared to the specialized needs of electronics manufacturers for production testing, process monitoring, product development, and research. The company has approximately 500 products used to source, measure, connect, control or communicate direct current (DC), radio frequency (RF), or optical signals. Product offerings include integrated systems solutions, instruments, and personal computer (PC) plug-in boards that can be used as system components or as stand-alone solutions. The company's markets are engineers, technicians, and scientists in manufacturing, product development, and research functions. Keithley operates throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. It develops new solutions for the broader electronics industry, as well as electronic manufacturing production test, semiconductor, telecommunications/wireless and research/education.

Products

Keithley Instruments' major product lines included testing and measurement products such as

electrometer An electrometer is an electrical instrument for measuring electric charge or electrical potential difference. There are many different types, ranging from historical handmade mechanical instruments to high-precision electronic devices. Modern ...

voltmeter A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electric potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. It is connected in parallel. It usually has a high resistance so that it takes negligible current from the circuit. A ...

signal generator A signal generator is one of a class of Electronics, electronic devices that generates electrical signals with set properties of amplitude, frequency, and wave shape. These generated signals are used as a stimulus for electronic measurements, typ ...

data acquisition Data acquisition is the process of sampling signals that measure real-world physical conditions and converting the resulting samples into digital numeric values that can be manipulated by a computer. Data acquisition systems, abbreviated by the ...

, and production and benchtop parametric testers and analyzers.

Historical highlights

* 1946 – Founded in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, U.S., by Joseph F. Keithley * 1950 – First employee hired ** John Yeager, the first employee, died 10 January 2018. * 1964 – Moved headquarters to Solon, OH * 1966 – German office opened * 1967 – UK office opened * 1991 – Joseph P. Keithley becomes chairman * 1995 – Listed on

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

* 1998 –

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

office opened * 2000 – Korea office opened * 2003 – Santa Rosa, California RF Design center opened (sold to

Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies, Inc. is an American global company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, that provides instruments, software, services, and consumables for laboratories. Agilent was established in 1999 as a spin-off from Hewlett-Packar ...

2009) * 2005 –

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

office opened * 2009 – S600 Series parametric test product line discontinued * 2010 – Agreed to sell itself to the

, many operations merged with

Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...

* 2011 – Announcement that most manufacturing will shift from Ohio to China

References

External links

*
"Understanding current switching’s special needs"
Cigoy, Dale. '' Electronic Products''.July 1, 2009 .
"Standards Help Ensure Order for Nanotechnology"
Tucker, Jonathan. ''Evaluation Engineering''. June 2009.
"Low Level Measurements Handbook: Precision DC Current, Voltage, and Resistance Measurements"
Keithley Instruments, Inc. 7th edition, 2016. {{Tektronix Technology companies established in 1946 Technology companies disestablished in 2010 Electronic test equipment manufacturers Defunct companies based in Ohio 1946 establishments in Ohio 2010 disestablishments in Ohio American companies established in 1946 American companies disestablished in 2010