Having just bought a Keithley 6514, I wanted to learn how this line of specialty instruments has evolved over time. Has anyone published a summary?
Here's my stab at piecing together the history. The sources for the release dates are in parentheses; mostly the oldest print history date of the manuals. As none of this is officially confirmed, I've marked all the dates with a question mark:
602 - 1975?
https://download.tek.com/manual/29111C(Model602).pdf610B - 1964? (From the schematics in
http://bama.edebris.com/download/keithley/610b/MFG_KEITHLEY_610B_BR.pdf)
614 - 1981? (srb1954 says the earliest dates in the manual is 9-8-81, and SilverSolder confirms manual copyright 1981)
616 - 1975? (
https://download.tek.com/manual/28039I(Model616).pdf)617 - 1984? (
https://download.tek.com/manual/617_901_01G.pdf)
619 - 1981?
http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/keithley/619/6512 - 1994?
https://doc.xdevs.com/docs/Keithley/6512/, https://doc.xdevs.com/docs/Keithley/6512/photo/6514 - 1998??
6517 - 1994
https://xdevs.com/doc/Keithley/6517/6517_900_01D.pdf6517A - 1996 (
https://www.aps.anl.gov/files/APS-Uploads/DET/Detector-Pool/Electronics/Meters/6517A_Users_Manual.pdf)
6517B - Some time 1997-2014 (from jjoonathan comment, citing davesherman74)
Picoammeter
6485 / 6487 - 2002? -
https://download.tek.com/manual/6487-901-01(B-Mar2011)(Ref).pdfSMU
6430 Sub-Femtoamp Remote SourceMeter
The dates can be questionable. For example, if judging from the manual print history, 6514 came in 1998 and 6517A came in 1996. I can't believe the superior 6517 was released before 6514 so the manual print history is probably not the way to learn this. Does someone know the facts?
For reference, there's a support forum at
https://forum.tek.com/viewforum.php?f=39It's interesting to see the performance progression, for example the 1-year accuracy of the most sensitive amps range:
617: 1.6% + 66 counts (range 2 pA, resolution 100 aA)
6514: 1% + 30 counts (range 20 pA, resolution 100 aA)
6517B: 1% + 30 counts (range 20 pA, resolution 100 aA)
Others are welcome to correct my mistakes and fill in more details!
EDITS: Updated 3 times with new/corrected information.