Agilent 3458A 8.5 Digit System Multimeter with Option 001

Description

For more than three decades, the 3458A has been the multimeter other multimeters are measured against. Introduced by Hewlett-Packard in 1989 and still in production today under the Keysight name, it remains the world reference standard for 8½-digit measurement — the instrument you will find on the bench in national metrology institutes, calibration laboratories, and precision R&D facilities around the world. Few instruments of any kind stay at the top of their field for 35 years. The 3458A has never been displaced.

What sets it apart is its famous ultra-linear multislope analog-to-digital converter, with ADC linearity deviations of less than 0.1 ppm of input. That linearity is the foundation for up to 8½ digits of resolution, 0.1 part-per-million transfer accuracy, and up to 8 ppm one-year DC voltage accuracy. The 3458A optimizes each measurement for the right combination of accuracy, resolution, and speed — from 4½-digit DC volts at 100,000 readings per second to 8½-digit DC volts at 6 readings per second, or anywhere in between in 100 ns steps. Seven measurement functions and programming through the Agilent Multimeter Language (ML) make it as much at home in an automated test system as on the bench.

Built to stay accurate — for decades

The reason a well-maintained 3458A holds its value and its accuracy is its two-source autocalibration (ACAL). The instrument performs a complete self-calibration of all functions, including AC, using high-stability internal standards — eliminating measurement errors from time drift and temperature change in your rack or on your bench. When external calibration is due, you connect only a precision 10 VDC source and a precision 10 kΩ resistor; every range and function, including AC, is then calibrated automatically through precision internal ratio-transfer measurements. It is a large part of why this design has remained a trusted transfer standard across three decades and three brand names. This unit is equipped with Option 001, expanding internal reading memory to a total of 148,000 readings for extended high-speed data capture.

High-resolution digitizing

Beyond steady-state measurement, the 3458A is a capable digitizer: 16 bits at 100,000 samples per second, effective sampling rates to 100 MSa/second, a 12 MHz signal bandwidth, and 10 ns timing resolution — capturing fast transients and waveforms that conventional DMMs simply cannot resolve.