Bruce Hofer

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Bruce Edward Hofer (b. 1948 in Portland – ?) worked as an assistant in the Lab Instruments division of Tektronix while studying at Oregon State University. After graduading in in Electrical Engineering in 1970, he joined Tek fulltime, working on the 7000 series.

Hofer worked on 7000-series time base design, partly with Art Metz, Les Larson.

He later switched to audio, designing low distortion oscillators and harmonic distortion measuring equipment (lead engineer on the SG505 audio oscillator and the AA501 distortion analyzer, and TM5000 plugins).

Unable to convince Tek management there was a market for this, in 1984 Bruce quit and cofounded Audio Precision with Bob Metzler, Richard Cabot, and Bob Wright.

Audio Precision became the world standard for audio test equipment manufacturers. Bruce became majority owner of AP in 2002.

Hofer along with Bob Metzler helped launch Preamble Instruments.

Links

Documents Authored by Bruce Hofer

Document Page Class Title Author(s) Year Refers to
Tekscope 1976 V8 N1.pdf 2 Article Delta Time Measurement for the 7000 Series Paul Farley Les Larson Bruce Hofer 1976 7B85 7B80 DM40 DM43
Tekscope 1980 V12 N3.pdf 14 Article Automatic Distortion Analyzer Speeds Distortion Measurements Bruce Hofer 1980 AA501 SG505

Products by Bruce Hofer

Model Class Description Designers Introduced
7D11 Plug-in digital delay Carlo Infante Bob Beville Bruce Hofer 1972
7B50A Plug-in 100 MHz timebase Les Larson Bruce Hofer Paul Farley Art Metz 1976
7B80 Plug-in 400 MHz timebase Les Larson Bruce Hofer Paul Farley Art Metz 1976
067-0657-00 Plug-in 7000 Series Normalized Ramp Generator Bruce Hofer 1976
7B92A Plug-in 500 MHz dual timebase Les Larson Bruce Hofer 1976
7B85 Plug-in 400 MHz delaying timebase Les Larson Bruce Hofer Paul Farley Art Metz 1976
7B10 Plug-in 1 GHz timebase Art Metz Bruce Hofer Val Garuts 1978
7B15 Plug-in 1 GHz delaying timebase Art Metz Bruce Hofer Val Garuts 1978
AA501 Plug-in audio analyzer Bruce Hofer Rush Hood Richard Cabot Fred Armentrout 1980
SG505 Plug-in ultra-low distortion oscillator Bruce Hofer 1980
PS5010 Plug-in programmable triple power supply Bruce Hofer 1982
SG5010 Plug-in audio signal generator Bruce Hofer Bob Metzler Richard Cabot Bob Wright 1984
AA5001 Plug-in audio analyzer Bruce Hofer 1984

Components by Bruce Hofer

Patents by Bruce Hofer

Page Office Number Title Inventors Company Filing date Grant date
Patent US 3843873A US 3843873A Counter having selective direction and variable rate control Bob Beville Bruce Hofer Bill Peek Tektronix Inc 1972-09-19 1974-10-22
Patent US 4009399A US 4009399A Gated ramp generator Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1976-02-05 1977-02-22
Patent US 4132958A US 4132958A Feedbeside correction circuit for an amplifier John Addis Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1977-10-31 1979-01-02
Patent US 4296381A US 4296381A Distortion reduction circuit for an inverting feedback amplifier Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1979-10-01 1981-10-20
Patent US 4302738A US 4302738A Noise rejection circuitry for a frequency discriminator Richard Cabot Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1980-04-11 1981-11-24
Patent US 4382233A US 4382233A Multiple-feedback path filter Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1980-11-12 1983-05-03
Patent US 4344029A US 4344029A Automatic IM distortion test selector Richard Cabot Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1981-05-11 1982-08-10
Patent US 4560958A US 4560958A State variable oscillator having improved rejection of leveler-induced distortion Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1984-02-24 1985-12-24
Patent US 4563652A US 4563652A Dual-stage filter with feedback Bruce Hofer Audio Precision 1985-04-12 1986-01-07
Patent US 4614914A US 4614914A Low-distortion transformer-coupled circuit Bruce Hofer Audio Precision 1985-04-12 1986-09-30
Patent US 4811395A US 4811395A Two-tone test signal method for BTSC calibration Edward J. Cleary Jr. Bruce Hofer Tektronix Inc 1987-10-08 1989-03-07
Patent US 5336989A US 5336989A AC mains test apparatus and method Bruce Hofer Audio Precision 1991-09-19 1994-08-09
Patent US 7268711B1 US 7268711B1 Method and circuit for amplitude compensation in a digital-to-analog converter Bruce Hofer Audio Precision 2006-03-24 2007-09-11