Tektronix event highlights precision measurements

At “Precision Unveiled,” Tektronix gave attendees a look at the future and displayed some current test equipment.

Raleigh, NC, October 28, 2025 — Tektronix, well known for oscilloscopes and more recently power sources and power measurements through its acquisitions of Keithley and EA Elektro Automatic, hosted an event at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Attendees included representatives from distributors and customers, plus university professors, students, podcasters, and an editor.

The event, called “Precision Unveiled,” included a keynote address, exhibits of test equipment, and a workshop. I did not attend the workshop, choosing to maximize time at the equipment exhibits, as opposed to the art exhibits. See photos and video below.

In the keynote address, Joe Wang looked at the megatrends that have shaped our world since the mid-1800s. Wang’s slide shows how annual percentage point additions to gross domestic product (GDP) jumped when groundbreaking technologies, including railroads, automobiles, aircraft, and personal computers, became available. If you look at the right side of the graph, you see far greater jumps expected from AI, materials, batteries, and edge computing. That’s where opportunities for test equipment come in,” said Wang, “they all feed on each other.”

Wang continued by focusing on new energy sources. He spoke of batteries the size of tractor-trailer trucks that can store as much energy as contained in a lightning storm, and that a bottle of water, under the right conditions, can contain as much energy as a person could use in a lifetime.

Tektronix has a new parent company, Raleigh-based Ralliant, whose CEO, Tami Newcombe, and Tektronix president, Chris Bohn, then joined Wang onstage.

Bohn spoke of his vision of what engineers want in oscilloscopes. “All oscilloscope companies have specs,” he said, “the difference is in improving workflow.”

Newcombe, an EE and former Tektronix employee, added, “Engineers look to us to help them solve problems.”

Next, Chris White took to the stage, where he spoke about AI, calling it the fifth wave of computing following the PC, internet, cell phone, and cloud computing. He augmented some of Bohn’s comments by adding that the user experience is key and not just by using colors, graphs, and layout. He referred to test equipment taking on an experience similar to the smartphone, but with added automation. By that, he referred to APIs and Python scripts running on an external PC.

White continued by speaking of intelligence at the network edge and how engineers use oscilloscopes to troubleshoot and validate the signal integrity needed for networks to reliably transport data. “Low-cost computing is going into the consumer market,” he said. “Engineers must work to minimize cost, size, and power consumption. The behavioral boundaries cover more than just performance.”

Exhibits

The Tektronix 7-Series oscilloscopes were prominently displayed. Here, it’s demonstrating eye diagrams, a key tool for analyzing signal integrity in data streams. On another table, the acquisition board was on display. You can see the shield traces surrounding the sensitive analog circuits with the signal processor in the center and power components at the far end of the board. The board’s code name was “Falcon,” and the PCB designer left a telltale sign.

Tektronix also displayed a 6-Series oscilloscope. Here’s an application that uses a near-field probe to locate a source of EMI emissions.

Another demonstration focused on power sources and measurements. In the video, Steven Everitt demonstrated the MP5000, a modular rack-mounted system where you can install up to three power supplies or SMUs. The modular SMUs are essentially faceless versions of the classic Keithley 2600. Surprisingly, Everitt noted that engineers are using the system, which was designed for production test, on their benches to achieve high channel counts.

Following the demonstration, I spoke with Rich McFadden and Jennifer Cheney about the MP5000. McFadden noted that a reason for designing it had to do with the need for high channel counts. He cited LED testing on flat-screen TV as an example.

“Every LED needs to be tested. Think of the volume and throughput needed to test every LED in a TV. Test systems take up so much floor space. You could have numerous manufacturing lines just full of those test racks. We needed to design a 1U-size instrument where engineers can stack them in a rack.”

Cheney noted that the MP5000 uses Keithley’s test-script processor, which lets test engineers daisy chain up to 32 MP5000 chassis together, each capable of supporting up to three power supply or SMU modules. Test scripts can run in each chassis, or a host computer can execute them. Often, test engineers use a host computer for data collection and analysis.

Other exhibits included measurements for sensor design and for materials testing. Yes, there were art exhibits.