The Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) Solid State Technology Association is a consortium of the semiconductor industry headquartered in Arlington, United States. It has over 300 members and is focused on standardization of part numbers, defining an electrostatic discharge (ESD) standard, and leadership in the lead-free manufacturing transition. NEMA discontinued its involvement in 1979. In the fall of 1999, JEDEC became a separate trade association under the current name, but maintained an EIA alliance, until EIA ceased operations in 2011.

History

thumb|right|250px|An early 1950s transistor using the precursor to the EIA/JEDEC part numbering system

The origin of JEDEC can be traced back to 1944, when the Radio Manufacturers Association (RMA), and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) established the Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council (JETEC) to coordinate vacuum tube type numberings. The expansion of the radio industry caused JETEC to expand its scope to include solid-state devices and develop standards for semiconductor devices. Eventually, the joint JETEC activity of EIA and NEMA was renamed into Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) in 1958.

Part numbers

JEDEC's 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.

Test methods and product standards

This early work was followed by a number of test methods, JESD22, and product standards. For example, the ESD caution symbol, which is the hand with the line drawn through it, was published by JEDEC and is used worldwide. JEDEC also has a dictionary of semiconductor terms. All of JEDEC standards are free on the Web for downloading after a free registration.

JEDEC has issued widely used standards for device interfaces, such as the JEDEC memory standards for computer memory (RAM), including the DDR SDRAM standards.

Semiconductor package drawings

JEDEC also developed a number of popular package drawings for semiconductors such as TO-3, TO-5, etc. These are on the web under JEP-95. One hot issue is the development of lead-free packages that do not suffer from the tin whiskers problem that reappeared since the recent ban on lead content. JEDEC is working with iNEMI on a joint interest group on lead-free issues.

Members

As of 2023, JEDEC has 365 members in total. Among them are large companies, which include the following:

References

  • List of JEDEC member companies
  • JEP95, the master JEDEC package list (free registration required)