News - General T&M

Rohde & Schwarz enters the oscilloscope market

01 July 2010 - Rohde & Schwarz is launching two new product families that will position the company as an oscilloscope vendor in the global marketplace. With this move, the company is expanding its already extensive portfolio of test and measurement equipment.

“Our customers expect us to offer a complete line of products, and that includes oscilloscopes,” says President and CEO Michael Vohrer. “To meet this demand, we are introducing a total of six new products of which we are extremely proud.” These products build on the impressive expertise at Rohde & Schwarz, where analog and digital integration, software and hardware development, as well as production are all carried out in-house. The outcome: oscilloscopes with the highest active signal acquisition rate on the market today, the first purely digital trigger system, and touch-screen operation for ease of use. With this step into a new field, the company aims to ensure its long-term growth.

The oscilloscope market has been stable for decades and is continuously growing. “Oscilloscopes are needed throughout the electronics industry,” explains Michael Vohrer. “We are looking at a global market volume of around one billion dollars”. This is why Rohde & Schwarz is focusing strategically not just on its existing customer base in areas such as wireless communications or aerospace and defense, but also on new customers, particularly those in the wide-base electronics market. More than 75 years of experience and first-rate references in its traditional fields of business give the company a leading edge. “In response to our customers’ wishes, we are rounding out our portfolio and moving into an interesting, yet highly competitive market – exactly the kind of challenge we like to take on at Rohde & Schwarz,” states Vohrer.

To optimally address customer requirements, Rohde & Schwarz is starting out with two new product families and a total of six instruments. The R&S RTO family, comprising oscilloscopes with bandwidths of 1 GHz and 2 GHz, is aimed at the high-performance segment. “Our focus here is on high speed and optimum signal fidelity – two hugely important factors in real-life applications,” explains Josef Wolf, Director of the Oscilloscopes Subdivision. “These characteristics, combined with our groundbreaking touch-screen interface for ease of use, enables users to accomplish even complex test and measurement tasks in a minimum of time.” The R&S RTM family is intended for universal applications wherever electrical signals need to be measured.“ In research, in schools or in hobbyist labs – everyone needs oscilloscopes,” says Wolf. This is why Rohde & Schwarz is offering scopes with solid features at an outstanding price/performance ratio in the midrange segment up to 500 MHz.

When it comes to more basic oscilloscopes for bandwidths up to 350 MHz, Rohde & Schwarz subsidiary Hameg Instruments, an established vendor with more than 50 years of experience in the field of budget oscilloscopes and measuring equipment, covers the needs of this market. Rohde & Schwarz acquired the company in 2005 with the aim of targeting new customers in the lower price segment. In early 2009, Hameg successfully expanded its product portfolio, introducing digital oscilloscopes in the frequency range up to 350 MHz.

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