HAMEG Instruments GmbH was a German enterprise specialized in the development and production of laboratory instruments (such as oscilloscopes). The company was located in

Mainhausen Mainhausen is a municipality of over 9,000 in the Offenbach district in the ''Regierungsbezirk'' of Darmstadt in Hesse, Germany. Geography Location Mainhausen is one of 13 towns and communities in the Offenbach district, lying in the southernmos ...

near

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

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until it was completely integrated in the test & measurement division of

Rohde & Schwarz Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co KG (, ) is an international electronics group specializing in the fields of electronic test equipment, broadcast & media, cybersecurity, radiomonitoring and radiolocation, and radiocommunication. The company provides ...

in 2016. As a result, HAMEG as an independent company was closed.

History

The business was established in 1957 by Karl Hartmann in Frankfurt/Main under the name HAMEG KG. The company name is derived from Hartmann-Messgeräte. The first product was a 5 MHz one channel oscilloscope. In 2005, the company founder retired and the business was acquired by the electronics company

with headquarters in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. During that time, the name was changed to HAMEG Instruments GmbH. HAMEG maintained subsidiaries in Chemnitz (product development) and

Münchenbernsdorf Münchenbernsdorf is a town in the district of Greiz, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated approximately 16 km southwest of Gera. The town is seat of a municipal association with eight members. Geography Münchenbernsdorf is located sou ...

( PCB assembly) as well as a distribution subsidiary in France (HAMEG Instruments France S.a.r.l.). At the end of 2010, HAMEG abandoned the manufacturing locations Mainhausen and Münchenbernsdorf and since then has moved production to the Rohde & Schwarz plant at Vimperk in the

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. In the wake of this transition, approximately 80 jobs were cut at HAMEG. Other company divisions such as development (

and Chemnitz), product management, sales, customer service and quality assurance have remained independent. At the end of 2011, Rohde & Schwarz announced that the company would offer the entire HAMEG product portfolio through its own European distribution network. Only a few months later, in February 2012, HAMEG launched a new product logo. This was the first time that the HAMEG affiliation with Rohde & Schwarz became visible on HAMEG products thanks to the dual name label. As of March 2013, HAMEG products have been made available virtually all over the world through the Rohde & Schwarz distribution network. In June 2014 Rohde & Schwarz announced that in the future all new products from HAMEG will be marketed under the name ''Rohde & Schwarz''.

Products

The range of products offered by HAMEG includes analog

oscilloscopes An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...

, mixed-signal oscilloscopes (MSO),

spectrum analyzer A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of known and unknown signals. The input signal that most co ...

function generator In electrical engineering, a function generator is usually a piece of electronic test equipment or software used to generate different types of electrical waveforms over a wide range of frequencies. Some of the most common waveforms produced ...

s, RF generators, laboratory

power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a ...

units, programmable power supplies and modular laboratory measuring components. The company primarily serves the entry-level segment of the market and is particularly used at electronics laboratories, production supervision as well as at schools and universities. For a very long time, HAMEG was convinced of the benefits of analog technology in the context of the oscilloscope market. In 2004, when HAMEG introduced a new series of so-called CombiScopes (instruments which include both an analog and a digital operating mode), the company stated that "DSOs in principle can not replace analog oscilloscopes". In 2007, HAMEG produced the HM2008 oscilloscope (as shown in the picture) which includes an analog and a digital element as well as mixed-signal functions (4 digital channels). In late 2008, HAMEG introduced the first purely digital oscilloscope with TFT monitor at the ''electronica'' electronics trade fair in Munich, Germany. As all subsequently introduced instruments, these oscilloscopes include mixed-signal functions (8 or 16 digital channels) and the option to decode serial buses such as

I2C I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''i'' (pronounced ), plural ...

, SPI, CAN and LIN. For instruments with TFT monitors, HAMEG skipped the entire generation of the classical, purely digital storage oscilloscopes (DSO) without MSO functions. By 2012, HAMEG had developed a product range of 11 MSO instruments and one analog oscilloscope. In autumn of 2012, HAMEG announced intentions to soon discontinue production of analog oscilloscopes. Allegedly, this decision was partly due to obstacles in sourcing cathode ray tubes.''An era is coming to an end'', HAMEG corporate blog, October 25, 2012
/ref> In February 2013, HAMEG introduced a new series of mixed-signal oscilloscopes with up to 500 MHz bandwidth.

References

External links

HAMEG Instruments company website

Oscilloscopes by Rohde & Schwarz and HAMEG

The Rohde & Schwarz website
{{DEFAULTSORT:HAMEG Instruments Electronic test equipment manufacturers German brands Companies based in Hesse Electronics companies established in 1957 Privately held companies of Germany 1957 establishments in West Germany 2016 mergers and acquisitions