Pro Electron

 ( Electrical Standards ) 

Pro Electron or EECA is the European type designation and registration system for , such as , liquid crystal displays, sensor, vacuum tube and .

Pro Electron was set up in 1966 in Brussels, Belgium. In 1983 it was merged with the European Electronic Component Manufacturers Association (EECA) and since then operates as an agency of the EECA.

The goal of Pro Electron is to allow unambiguous identification of electronic parts, even when made by several different manufacturers. To this end, manufacturers register new devices with the agency and receive new type designators for them.

• AD162 – Germanium power transistor for audio frequency use
• BY133 – Silicon rectifier
• BZY88C5V1 – Silicon 5.1 volt Zener diode
• CQY97 – light emitting diode
• ECC83 – 6.3 volt heater noval dual triode
• A63EAA00XX01 – Color TV picture tube
• SAA1300 – Digital integrated circuit

Pro Electron took the popular European coding system in use from around 1934 for valves (Vacuum tube), i.e. the Mullard–Philips tube designation, and essentially re-allocated several of the rarely used heater designations (first letter of the part number) for semiconductors. The second letter was used in a similar way to the valves naming convention: "A" for signal diode, "C" for low-power bipolar transistor or triode, "D" for high-power transistor (or triode), and "Y" for rectifier, but other letter designations did not follow the vacuum tube mode so closely.

The three digits (or letter followed by two digits) after the first two letters were essentially a sequence number, with (at first) a vestige of the valve-era convention that the first one or two digits would indicate the base (package) type in examples such as in this family of general-purpose transistors:

• 7 for high voltage
• 8 for general purpose
• 9 for low noise/high gain

Pro Electron naming for transistors and Zener diodes has been widely taken up by semiconductor manufactures around the world. Pro Electron naming of integrated circuits, other than some special (e.g. television signal-processing) chips, did not greatly take hold (even in Europe). Other popular designation systems were used for many integrated circuits.

• Unlike the tube naming convention, if there are two transistors in a single envelope, the type letter was never repeated - so a dual NPN RF transistor might get a type "BFM505" rather than something like "BFF505" for instance.
• Although some of the most popular devices conform to a pattern of serial numbers that identified package type and polarity, many do not.
• The letters assigned for the second character of transistor and diode type numbers differ in several ways, e.g.
• "B" tends to be used for dual varicap diodes
• "L" in the context of transistors designates RF power (transmitting) transistors; for valves it meant a high-power pentode tube (the usual choice for power RF)
• "Z" is used for semiconductor Zener diodes instead of (full-wave) rectifier valves (Vacuum tube).

• A Germanium (or any semiconductor with junctions in a material with a band gap of 0.6 to 1.0eV)
• B Silicon (or band gap of 1.0 to 1.3eV)
• C Boron group-Nitrogen group semiconductors with a band gap of 1.3eV or more, like gallium arsenide in LEDs
• D may be...
• Semiconductors with a band gap less than 0.6eV, such as indium antimonide in infrared detectors (rarely used), or
• (Mullard–Philips) 1.4V (or less) filament tubes
• E (Mullard–Philips) tubes with a 6.3V heater
• F Digital integrated circuits
• P (Mullard–Philips) tubes for a 300mA series heater supply
• R Devices without junctions, e.g. cadmium sulfide in a photoresistor
• S Solitary digital integrated circuits
• T Linear integrated circuits
• U may be...
• (Mullard–Philips) tubes for a 100mA series heater supply, or
• Mixed digital/analogue integrated circuits

• See Mullard–Philips tube designation for details. A brief summary of just the more common letters is:

    ECC81
   /  \ \\__ last digit(s)=serial number
  /    \ \__ first digit(s)=base (3=8pin 8,18,80=Noval (B9A), 9=Mini 7-pin (B7G)
 /      \___ one letter per valve unit in the tube:
D=1.4v or less      A=single-diode (low power)
E=6.3v*             B=double-diode (''usually'' shared cathode, ''but not always'')
P=300mA             C=triode
U=100mA             F=pentode (low power)
                    L=pentode (high power)
                    Y=Single-phase rectifier
                    Z=Full-wave rectifier
* Note: some 6.3 volt heater types have a split heater allowing series (12.6 volt; the
  default for Noval pins 4 to 5) or parallel (6.3 volt) operation.
     

• In early devices only, the serial number often indicated the case/package type (e.g. AF114-7 for TO-5 case, while AF124-7 were TO-72 versions of the same transistors); modern surface-mount devices often begin with "8",
• early silicon transistors followed the convention of using a middle digit of 0-5 for NPN and 6-9 for PNP.
• the last digit often indicated a particular specification or application grouping, e.g. the AF117 and AF127 were similar IF amplifier devices in different cases; the BC109, BC149, BC169 and BC549 are similar low-noise transistors).
• some modern devices use letters, such as "B" to indicate HBT bipolar transistors.

• for small-signal transistors "A" to "C" often means low to high h_FE, such as in: BC549C Datasheet for BC549, with A, B and C gain groupings),
• numeric suffixes may be used as an alternative way to show h_FE (e.g. BC327-25), or voltage rating (e.g. BUK854-800A datasheet for BUK854-800A (800 volt IGBT)).
• for voltage reference diodes letters show the tolerance ("A","B","C","D","E" indicate 1%/2%/5%/10*/20%) and may be followed by the V_z value, e.g. 6V8 for 6.8 Volts or 18V for 18 volts.
• "R" can mean "reverse polarity".

Examples of suffixes and manufacturers' extensions to the basic sequence number include:

Note: A BC546 might only be marked "C546" by some manufacturers, thus possibly creating confusion with JIS abbreviated markings, because a transistor marked "C546" might also be a 2SC546.

Short summary of the most common semiconductor diode and transistor designations:

      BC549C
     / |--- \___ variant (A, B, C for transistors implies low, medium or high gain)
    /  |   \____ serial number (at least 3 digits or letter and 2 digits)
   /  device type:
A=Ge     A=Signal diode
B=Si     C=LF low-power transistor
         D=LF Power transistor
         F=RF transistor (or FET)
         P=Photosensitive transistor etc.
         T=Triac or thyristor
         Y=Rectifier diode
         Z=Zener diode
     

Examples: - Germanium power transistor from KME; - optoisolator from KME; KD503 - Silicon power transistor from Tesla; - LED from Tesla.

   FCH171
  //  \ \__ serial number (including temperature range)
 //    \___ H=gate ("Combinatorial circuit"), J=flip-flop, K=monostable, L=[[level shifter]], Q=[[RAM]], R=[[ROM|Read-only memory]], Y=miscellaneous etc.
FC=DTL by [[Philips]] / [[Mullard]]
FD=dynamic [[PMOS|PMOS logic]] by [[Philips]] / [[Mullard]]
FE=[[PMOS|PMOS logic]] by [[Philips]] / [[Mullard]]
FH=TTL by [[Philips]] (SUHL II series)
FJ=TTL by [[Philips]] / [[Mullard]] (7400 series)
FK=E2CL by [[Philips]]
FL=TTL by [[Siemens]] (7400 series)
FN=ECL by [[Telefunken]]
FP=HTL by [[Telefunken]]
FQ=DTL by [[SGS-ATES]]
FS=SECL by [[Telefunken]]
FY=ECL by [[Siemens]]
FZ=HTL by [[Siemens]]
GD=[[PMOS|PMOS logic]] by [[Siemens]] (MEM1000 series)
GH=ECL by [[Philips]]
GJ=TTL by [[Mullard]] (74H00 series)
GR=interface devices by [[Mullard]] (7500 series)
GT=TTL by [[Mullard]] (74S00 series)