For 40 years, ORTEC has been an industry leader in the design and manufacture of precision detectors, signal processing electronics, software, and systems for industry, academia, and government requirements. The ORTEC product line of over 1600 products includes equipment and instruments for nuclear power plant and government nuclear facility operations, special nuclear material safeguards, and fundamental research.

ORTEC was originally founded in 1960 by a group of scientists from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to provide a commercial source for research grade silicon surface barrier charged particle detectors. ORTEC has grown to provide state of the art solutions in virtually all areas of nuclear measurements.

ORTEC continues to lead the industry in innovative techniques and equipment to perform the most rigorous of measurements. These include:

• State-of-the-art, high quality High Purity Germanium detector systems with evolving specifications to meet the demands of today's gamma counting systems,
• The first fully integrated Ethernet-based hardware and software platform to allow connection of equipment anywhere in a facility while allowing operators and supervisors to view, edit, configure, control, and analyze data on any hardware from anywhere at any time,
• The continuous development of PC-based GammaVision® and AlphaVision quantitative spectroscopy software packages which are more powerful and easier to use than any previously available software,
• The first integrated DSP-based hardware systems (the DSPEC and DSPEC-Plus) for High Purity Germanium detectors which improve the performance and stability of the gamma spectroscopy counting systems,
• The first fully-integrated DSP-based portable Multi Channel Analyzer designed to operate in the field for a full working day without an external PC,
• The first (and only) low-cost mechanical cooler for High Purity Germanium detectors which eliminates the need for, reduces running operational costs of, and eliminates safety hazards associated with Liquid Nitrogen cooling.
• The first commercially available High Purity Germanium-base portable nuclide identifier.

From its inception as a small enterprise founded by scientists and engineers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, our business and reputation for excellence in scientific instrumentation have grown substantially. Along with that growth came concomitant alliances with even larger scientific businesses. Throughout this growth, the ORTEC® name has stood for quality and excellence. Recently, the corporate name associated with ORTEC has changed to AMETEK, a billion-dollar company dedicated to growth in electronic instrumentation. This new corporate identity promises a brilliant future of innovation for the ORTEC products. Here is a brief history of the continuity of the ORTEC identity:

In 1960, the Oak Ridge Technical Enterprise Corporation was started by a group of scientists and engineers who recognized the need for commercially-manufactured, research-grade semiconductor detectors and compatible electronics for nuclear physics. The first rented building was a concrete guardhouse that had been used during the 1940s and 1950s as a high-security entrance for the U.S. Government laboratories in Oak Ridge. By the late 1960s the business had grown into substantially larger buildings, and the name was shortened to ORTEC. ORTEC products were in demand, . . . worldwide.

	In 1967, ORTEC was acquired by EG&G, a large scientific corporation founded by Edgerton, Grier and Germeshausen of MIT in 1947 to provide scientific consulting and testing for the U. S. Government. By the mid 1960s, EG&G had grown into a major contractor, operating several national laboratories for the government. The corporation was in the process of expanding into high-technology commercial operations.
	ORTEC was managed within a group known as EG&G INSTRUMENTS, and this was the name used for the sales and distribution organizations in many parts of the world. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the electronics product line extended into many scientific disciplines outside the nuclear physics origin.
	In 1999, EG&G acquired the Analytical Instruments Division (Norwalk, CT) of the PE Corporation, along with the rights to use the PerkinElmer name. The name of the division that manufactures and distributes the ORTEC brand was subsequently changed to PerkinElmer Instruments, to match the new PerkinElmer corporate name.
	In December 2001, the division that manufactures and distributes the ORTEC, SIGNAL RECOVERY, and Princeton Applied Research product lines was purchased from PerkinElmer by AMETEK, Inc. and given the new name, Advanced Measurement Technology, Inc.. AMETEK is a leading global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electric motors with annual sales in excess of $1 billion in 2000. This alliance is aimed at stimulating worldwide growth in the high-quality ORTEC product line.