About Colby Instruments

Colby Instruments designs and manufactures high-precision programmable microwave and RF delay line instruments and modules. Originally founded in 1977 by Dr. Siegfried Knorr and Dr. Betty Chang, our first products were focused primarily for the microwave and RF market.

In the first 10 years of operation, we introduced a number of very high-speed pulse generators and clock drivers from DC to 20 Gb/s with transition times as low as 12 picoseconds. The most outstanding performance characteristics were high stability and extremely low displayed trigger jitter.

Our most popular pulse generator (Model PG1000A) offered performance (0 to 1Ghz pulse with <200 ps rise time for ECL) and value unmatched by any other product on the market.

In 1988, we introduced a new product line of Precision Programmable Delay Line Instruments and Phase Shifters with resolution to 0.25 picoseconds, and bandwidth from DC to 18 GHz (DC to 40 Gb/s NRZ). These delay lines (our PDL Series of products) are free from all noise sources, including phase noise and jitter since these are completely wideband passive devices. Using a patented electro-mechanical trombone line structure, the PDL offers variable, programmable, and repeatable delay with the highest precision resolution. They represent the most advanced products of this kind available with a proven reliability and performance record. There is no other product in the industry that offers a programmable delay at the precision and resolution that the PDL series models offer.

With the retirement of Dr. Knorr in 2003, Mr. Victor Chinn became President of Colby Instruments. Prior to work in development at Colby Instruments, Mr. Chinn oversaw product development at Microsoft Corporation and IBM Corporation. In 2004, Colby Instruments relocated its headquarters from Santa Monica, CA to Bellevue, WA.

Our products are used in test and measurement laboratories, electronic and aerospace companies, defense systems, fiber optics, telecommunications, semiconductor fabrication, and in leading university and laser research labs.

Our customers are large corporations and research organizations, both here in the United States and overseas, with foreign sales accounting for over 25% of overall sales.

Our strength continues to be pursuing excellence in our engineering and in offering a customized delay line product with proven reliability and superior performance.

Contact us today if you have any questions, require a formal quote, or need a custom delay line instrument product tailored for your application.