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History of the manufacturer  

Fairchild Australia Pty Ltd., Melbourne

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Name: Fairchild Australia Pty Ltd., Melbourne    (AUS)  
Abbreviation: fairaus
Products: Others Tube manufacturer
Summary:

Fairchild Australia Pty Ltd., Melbourne

Founded in 1964, production of silicon semiconductors (types mostly began with AY... or AX...) for the australian market, closed in 1973.

Founded: 1964
Closed: 1973
History:

In June 1964 Radio, Television and Hobbies magazine carried the following announcement: “A new Australian company to produce heat resisting silicon transistors has been formed in Melbourne. An offshoot of the Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation of New York, the Australian company will be known as Fairchild Australia Pty Ltd. Chief executives of Fairchild Australia are Mr John B Baldwin, General Manger and Mr Robert L Major, Marketing Manager.” It noted that the new company would produce silicon planar transistors and integrated circuits and that the price would range from 6/- ($0.60) to a whopping ₤75 ($150). Noting that the Fairchild planar process was “the single most important development in semiconductor technology since the invention of the transistor” and that this process enables “the manufacture of highly reliable transistors and diodes, as well as integrated circuits that combine several transistors, resistors, diodes and associated connections on a single chip of silicon approximately the size of the head of a pin,” the report suggested that the new range would be well suited for transistorized TV sets. When Fairchild opened its plant in Australia its first manufacturing manager, Chris Reardon, recalled: “I joined Fairchild in '64 as manufacturing manager for Australia and spent three months up in Hong Kong where I got excited because I assembled the first transistor. I wouldn't be able to do it today. I went back and we got into a temporary building until we went out and selected a five acre site. We built a 20,000 square foot factory and started to staff it four months later. As it was a 20,000 square foot, it went up pretty fast.” [Pausa 2007] Reardon was born in Wales and came to Melbourne in 1957 when he was 27. Later, in 1966, the company opened its laboratory facilities. The factory closed in 1973 and the AY/AX series of transistors which had been unique to Fairchild in Australia became obsolete. (Correspondence and data courtesy Peter Walsh)

Authorship of the article: Mark Burgess.

This manufacturer was suggested by Günther Stabe † 19.8.20.


[rmxhdet-en]

Further details for this manufacturer by the members (rmfiorg):

This letter show that the AY/AX devices were unique to Fairchild Austalia. (Thanks to Peter Walsh)tbn_aus_fairchild_letter.jpg

  

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