JEDEC

The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, formerly known as the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC), is an independent semiconductor engineering trade organization and standardization body. Associated with the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA), a trade association that represents all areas of the electronics industry in the United States, JEDEC has over 300 members, including some of the world's largest computer companies.

Origins

JEDEC was founded in 1958 as a joint activity between EIA and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) to develop standards for semiconductor devices. NEMA discontinued its involvement in 1979.

The early work began as a part numbering system for devices which became popular in the 1960s. The first semiconductor devices, such as the 1N23 silicon point contact diode, were still designated in the old RMA tube designation system, where the "1" stood for "No filament/heater" and the "N" stood for "crystal rectifier". The first RMA digit thus was re-allocated from "heater power" to "p-n junction count" to form the new EIA/JEDEC EIA-370 standard; for example, the 1N4001 rectifier diode and 2N2222 transistor part numbers came from EIA-370. They are still popular today. In February, 1982, JEDEC issued JESD370B, superseding the original EIA-370 and introducing a new letter symbol "C" that denotes the die version, as opposed to "N", now meaning the packaged version. The Japanese JIS semiconductor designation system employs a similar pattern. JEDEC later developed a numbering system for integrated circuits, but this did not gain acceptance in the semiconductor industry. The European Pro Electron semiconductor numbering system originated in a similar way from the older Mullard–Philips tube designation.