Tektronix

Tektronix, Inc. is a North American company best known for its test and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. As of November 2007, Tektronix is a subsidiary of Danaher Corporation.

The company was honored at the 2008 Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for development of monitoring systems for ATSC & DVB transport streams.

The company traces its roots to the electronics revolution that immediately followed World War II. The company’s founders C. Howard Vollum and Melvin J. "Jack" Murdock invented the world’s first triggered oscilloscope in 1946, a significant technological breakthrough. Tektronix was incorporated in 1946 with its headquarters at SE Foster Road and SE 59th Avenue in Portland, Oregon. In 1947 there were 12 employees, and 250 in 1951. By 1950 the company began building a manufacturing facility in Washington County, Oregon, at Barnes Road and the Sunset Highway and expanded the facility by 1956 to 80,000 square feet (7,000 m2). The company then moved its headquarters to this site following an employee vote.

Tektronix instruments have enjoyed a leading position in the test and measurement market for decades, basically beginning with the firm's first cathode ray oscilloscopes. Much like Hewlett-Packard, Tektronix had a company policy of designing equipment of the very highest quality. Their equipment was quite expensive, but usually unmatched in performance, quality, and stability. Most test equipment manufacturers built their oscilloscopes with off-the-shelf, generally available components. But Tektronix, in order to get an extra measure of performance, used many custom-designed or specially-selected components. They even had their own factory for making ultra-bright and sharp CRT tubes. Later on they built their own integrated circuit manufacturing facility in order to make ICs of their own design with many times the performance of generally available components.