Episode 35 -- Andy Brawley, formerly of Silanna Semiconductor

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