The JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, formerly known as the Joint Electron Devices Engineering Council (JEDEC), is an independent semiconductor engineering trade organization and standardization body. Associated with the Electronic Industries Alliance

Electronic Industries Alliance

The Electronic Industries Alliance was a standards and trade organization composed as an alliance of trade associations for electronics manufacturers in the United States. They developed standards to ensure the equipment of different manufacturers was compatible and interchangeable...

 (EIA), a trade association that represents all areas of the electronics

Electronics

Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

 industry

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, 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

National Electrical Manufacturers Association

is the association of electrical and medical imaging equipment manufacturers. Founded in 1926 and headquartered near Washington, D.C., its approximately manufacture products used in the generation, transmission, distribution, control, and end use of electricity. These products are used in utility,...

 (NEMA) to develop standards for semiconductor device

Semiconductor device

Semiconductor devices are electronic components that exploit the electronic properties of semiconductor materials, principally silicon, germanium, and gallium arsenide, as well as organic semiconductors. Semiconductor devices have replaced thermionic devices in most applications...

s. NEMA dropped its involvement in 1979.

The early work began as a part numbering system for devices which became popular in the '60s. For example, the 1N4001 rectifier

Rectifier

A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current , which periodically reverses direction, to direct current , which flows in only one direction. The process is known as rectification...

 diode

Diode

In electronics, a diode is a type of two-terminal electronic component with a nonlinear current–voltage characteristic. A semiconductor diode, the most common type today, is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals...

 and 2N2222 transistor

2N2222

The 2N2222 is a common NPN bipolar junction transistor used for general purpose low-power amplifying or switching applications. It is designed for low to medium current, low power, medium voltage, and can operate at moderately high speeds. It is made in the TO-18 metal can as shown in the picture...

 part numbers came from JEDEC. These part numbers are still popular today. JEDEC later developed a numbering system for integrated circuits, but this did not gain acceptance in the semiconductor industry.

Earlier in the 20th century, the organization was known as JETEC, the Joint Electron Tube Engineering Council, and was responsible for assigning and coordinating type numbers of electron tubes (also called valves). The type 6L6

6L6

6L6 is the designator for a vacuum tube introduced by Radio Corporation of America in July 1936. At the time Philips had already developed and patented power pentode designs, which were fast replacing power triodes due to their greater efficiency...

, still to be found in electric-guitar amplifiers, typically has a type number that was assigned by JETEC.

In the fall of 1999, JEDEC became a separate trade association under the current name, but maintained an EIA alliance.

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

JEDEC memory standards

The JEDEC memory standards are the specifications for semiconductor memory circuits and similar storage devices promulgated by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, a semiconductor trade and engineering standardization organization....

 for computer memory (RAM), including the DDR SDRAM

DDR SDRAM

Double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory is a class of memory integrated circuits used in computers. DDR SDRAM has been superseded by DDR2 SDRAM and DDR3 SDRAM, neither of which are either forward or backward compatible with DDR SDRAM, meaning that DDR2 or DDR3 memory modules...

 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

Whisker (metallurgy)

Metal whiskering is a crystalline metallurgical phenomenon involving the spontaneous growth of tiny, filiform hairs from a metallic surface. The effect is primarily seen on elemental metals but also occurs with alloys....

 problem that reappeared since the recent ban on lead content

Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive

The Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment 2002/95/EC was adopted in February 2003 by the European Union. The RoHS directive took effect on 1 July 2006, and is required to be enforced and become law in each member state...

. JEDEC is working with iNemi on a joint interest group on lead-free issues.

Industry standards

JEDEC's adoption of open industry standards

Open standard

An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....

(i.e., standards that permit any and all interested companies to freely manufacture in compliance with adopted standards) serves several vital functions for the advancement of electronic technologies. First and foremost, such standards allow for interoperability between different electrical components. JEDEC standards do not protect members from normal patent obligations. The designated representatives of JEDEC member companies are required to disclose patents and patent applications of which they personally are aware (assuming that this information is not considered proprietary). JEDEC patent policy requires that standards found to contain patents, whose owners will not sign a standard JEDEC patent letter, be withdrawn. Thus the penalty for a failure to disclose patents is retraction of the standard. Typically, standards will not be adopted to cover technology that will be subject to patent protection. In rare circumstances, standards covered by a patent may be adopted, but only on the understanding that the patent owner will not enforce such patent rights or, at a minimum, that the patent owner will provide a reasonable and non-discriminatory license to the patented technology.

External links

• Official site of JEDEC.org
• List of JEDEC member companies
• JEP95, the master JEDEC package list (free registration required)
• INemi, tin whiskers user group of iNemi, a consortium of electronics companies