In this episode of @AuManufacturing Conversations with Brent Balinski we hear from Andy Brawley, former General Manager - Manufacturing at Silanna Semiconductor.
An item from the final day of our Australia's place in the semiconductor world series, this broad-ranging conversation is with a man who has spent over half a century in the industry.
Brawley shares his passion for electronics and the many different eras of Silanna, which has its origins in AWA Microelectronics. His career was ended by a NSW government decision to compulsorily acquire Silanna's site at Homebush for the Sydney Metro.
Episode guide
1:10 – Early interest in electronics.
1:54 – Did an apprenticeship in radio and TV and several tech courses.
3:06 – Joined AWA’s ADDL division in 1967.
5:15 – Outgrowing AWA Microelectronics’ Rydalmere site. Started investigating a new facility in 1986. The company locates a site at Lend Lease’s Australia Centre Technology Park, Homebush Bay.
8:10 – AWA starts to implode and the company looks to sell off some of its divisions. “Eventually it came to us in 1996.”
10 – Designing and building for DSTO, universities, hearing implants and pacemakers. Made circuits for Cochlear for 25 years. “When I look back on it, we were leading the world.”
11:30 – Quality Semiconductor buys AWAM. They are made to get out of medical electronics. “That hurt.”
12:00 – QSI merges with IDT.
13:50 – IDT starts closing their US foundries. Things started going south again in 2000.
15:20 – Peregrine Semiconductor buys in and silicon-on-sapphire enters the picture at Sydney.
16:50 – The 1990s. Victorian premier John Brumby asks if they want to relocate.
19:20 – Intel courts Australian governments. “That whole thing went nowhere.”
23:15 – The 2000s. “We made Peregrine quite successful.”
24:50 – Making VGA chips in big volumes and working the midnight to midday shift to get it done.
26:40 – Back to the Peregrine era and having to find work again, then finding RF switches for the global mobile phone market.
30:08 – Being asked to close in 2008 and having to find a new home for the team.
31:55 – Investing $30 million to build “fab three” in 2010.
32:55 – Different roles within Silanna and its precursors.
36:25 – The Mars Rover.
37:56 – Contributing to the early days of UNSW’s quantum computing effort. Designing a new voltage pulse generator able to operate at very cold temperatures.
39:36 – Designing low-noise amplifiers for the Square Kilometre Array.
40:52 – The Picofab at University of Adelaide and expertise in gallium oxide.
44:25 – The sorts of capital investments needed to make semiconductors.
46:10 – Being told they have to make way for the Metro in October 2019. “Is this some sort of April Fools joke?”
47:02 – The lack of understanding from government.
49:50 – The cruel irony of the NSW semiconductor industry report.
51:08 – “These things take years and years of planning, not 18 months. Not knocking on your door and saying ‘18 months and you’ve got to get out.’”
53:30 – Chips and geopolitics.
55:40 – Lessons from his career. The first is “The factor of pi” in planning.
58:30 – “Australia is not willing to accept risk,” whereas the US is “quite happy to fund ten projects and have nine fail.”
62:08 – Barry Jones’s visit to the foundry.
63:02 – Failure is a normal part of life and of technological progress, but you need to have a plan B.
64:35 – There is an ANZSIC code for brothels but not for the semiconductor industry. “That’s what they think of us.”
65:55 – What Australia needs to develop more high-tech manufacturing companies.
67:18 – The surprising industrial and educational
