Manufacturer profile
About Keithley
Reviewed 2026-07-26
Keithley is an active Tektronix instrumentation brand focused on precision DC sourcing, low-level measurement, switching, data acquisition, and semiconductor characterization. Its manuals include source measure units, electrometers, picoammeters, nanovoltmeters, digital multimeters, parameter analyzers, and production-test systems.
History
Joseph F. Keithley founded the company in Cleveland in 1946. An early electrometer helped establish its long-running specialization in measuring very small electrical signals, and the business moved its headquarters to Solon, Ohio, in 1964. The move year records when Solon became the headquarters; it is not an expiration date for that location. Keithley subsequently broadened its catalog into data acquisition, switching, source-measure instruments, and semiconductor test.
Keithley sold its Santa Rosa RF design center to Agilent Technologies in 2009; it did not acquire an Agilent division. Danaher acquired Keithley in 2010 and integrated it with Tektronix, which remains the current home of Keithley products. Tektronix's current Keithley pages continue to present hundreds of instruments for sourcing, measuring, connecting, and controlling DC or pulsed signals, supporting an active-brand profile rather than an ownership-unknown standalone company.
Equipment specialties
- Source measure units
- Electrometers and picoammeters
- Digital multimeters and nanovoltmeters
- Data-acquisition and switching systems
- Semiconductor parameter analyzers
Sources
- Keithley Instruments and Products — Tektronix, Inc. (accessed 2026-07-26)
- Low-Level, Sensitive and Specialty Instruments — Tektronix, Inc. (accessed 2026-07-26)
- Keithley Instruments — Wikipedia (accessed 2026-07-26)