Acronym · Standards & Organisations
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
The Geneva-based international standards organisation for electrical, electronic and related technologies, publishing everything from component symbols and safety requirements to functional safety frameworks.
It works jointly with ISO through committees such as ISO/IEC JTC 1.
- Type
- Acronym
- Domain
- Standards & Organisations, Standards bodies
Notes
Founded in 1906, it is the oldest of the major electrotechnical standards bodies and underpins CE marking requirements in Europe.
Overview
The IEC, or International Electrotechnical Commission, is the international organisation that writes standards for electrical, electronic and related technologies, from component test methods and graphical symbols to the functional safety of control systems. Its members are national committees, one per country, and many of its standards are adopted as national or regional standards. For chip companies its most visible outputs include the IEC 60749 test methods for semiconductor devices, the IEC 61508 functional safety series and, jointly with ISO, the information technology standards of ISO/IEC JTC 1.
How it works
Each member country is represented by a national committee, which can draw in manufacturers, government agencies, professional bodies and national standards organisations. Experts nominated through those committees do the drafting in technical committees and subcommittees, each owning a field. TC 47, Semiconductor devices, maintains the IEC 60749 series of mechanical and climatic test methods, whose first part sets provisions common to the rest of the series. Subcommittee SC 65A, System aspects, maintains IEC 61508, the basic safety publication on functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic safety-related systems, which sector standards build on.
The IEC works closely with ISO. Their joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1, covers information technology through more than twenty subcommittees, including SC 27 on information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection and SC 42 on artificial intelligence; joint standards carry both names, such as ISO/IEC 27001. The IEC also runs worldwide conformity assessment systems for testing and certifying products against its standards.
The organisation dates from 1906 and has been based in Geneva since 1948. In 1997 it renumbered its publications by adding 60000, which is why older standards such as IEC 27 now appear as IEC 60027.
Examples
- A reliability laboratory applying a part of IEC 60749, the multi-part series of mechanical and climatic test methods for discrete semiconductors and integrated circuits.
- An industrial safety controller chip developed and documented to IEC 61508 so that customers can use it in safety functions.
- ISO 26262 for road vehicles, which was derived from IEC 61508 and adapted to the automotive lifecycle.
- The ISO/IEC 15408 security evaluation criteria, maintained by JTC 1/SC 27, under which secure chips are evaluated.
- An engineer from a semiconductor company joining a TC 47 working group as an expert nominated by a national committee.
Related terms
Part of the Standards & Organisations glossary, with every term in the topic and the lifecycles, tools and standards that use them.
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