Tektronix Parts & Automation Components

Tektronix was founded on January 2, 1946 in Portland, Oregon, by Howard Vollum and Melvin "Jack" Murdock, along with Miles Tippery and Glenn McDowell — initially incorporating as "Tekrad" before adopting the Tektronix name. Vollum, a former U.S. Army Signal Corps radar technician, had built a working oscilloscope with a novel triggered-sweep circuit that let engineers view fast, stable waveforms for the first time; the company's first portable model, the 511 "Vollumscope," shipped to the University of Oregon Medical School in 1947. Tektronix grew into the world's leading oscilloscope manufacturer and is credited as the company that "seeded" Portland's Silicon Forest technology cluster, before being acquired by Danaher Corporation in 2007 for roughly $2.85 billion; it continues today as a major name in test and measurement equipment.