Pro Electron is the European type designation and registration system for active components (such as semiconductors, liquid crystal displays, sensor devices, electronic tubes and cathode ray tubes).
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.
Examples of Pro Electron type designators are:
Pro Electron took the popular European coding system in use from around 1934 for valves (tubes), the Mullard–Philips tube designation, and essentially re-allocated several of the rarely-used heater designations (first letter of the part number) for semiconductors, and continued the use of the second letters "A" for signal diode, "C" for low-power bipolar transistor or triode, "D" for high power transistor (or triode), and "Y" for rectifier. Beyond that, the tube and transistor type letter conventions start to diverge, e.g. "L" for high power pentode tubes - often used for audio, yet "L" is used for RF power (transmitting) transistors; "Z" is used for tube rectifiers but semiconductor Zener diodes. 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.
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) despite quite sensible structure to the numbering, perhaps due to the popularity of the 7400 series and its successors with (comparatively) haphazard number allocations, plus a tradition of engineers readily accepting, for example, uA741, LM741, etc as being the same popular 741 operational amplifier but would need a replacement guide to know that a TBA222 is also equivalent (and even then would suspect that close inspections of data sheets may be needed to make sure!).
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ECC81
/ \ \\__ last digits give serial number
/ \ \__ first digit(s) indicate base (3=octal, 8 or 18 or 80=Noval (B9A), 9=7-pin(B7G).
/ \___ one letter per valve in the tube:
D=0.5-1.5v 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 (12.6Volt; the default for Noval pins 4 to 5) or parallel (6.3Volt) operation.
BC549C
/ \ \ \___ variant (A,B,C for transistors implies low, medium or high gain)
/ \ \____ serial number (3 digits or letter and 2 digits)
/ \_____ device type:
A=Germanium A=Signal Diode
B=Silicon C=LF Low Power transistor
C=GaAs D=Power transistor
F=RF transistor (or FET)
P=Photosensitive transistor
T=Triac or Thyristor
Y=Rectifier Diode
Z=Zener diode
FCH171
// \ \__ serial number,gives the count and type of gates for example
// \___ H=gate ("Combinatorial circuit") J=flip-flop K=monostable Q=RAM R=ROM etc.
FC=DTL
FD=MOS
FJ=TTL
Unfortunately the serial number does not specify the same type of gate in each family, e.g. while an FJH131 is a Quadruple 2-input NAND gate (like the 7400), an FCH131 is a Dual 4-input NAND gate.
latest info: http://www.eeca.eu/data/File/PRO%20ELECTRON_D15%20final%20version%202007_12%20%28ESIA%29%20updated%2016%2007%2010.pdf