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Lansdale semi celebrates 50 years

Landsdale 1R. Dale Lillard, president of Lansdale Semiconductor, Inc. in Phoenix, pioneer and manufacturer of hi-rel aftermarket integrated circuits (ICs) and semiconductor products, is celebrating the company’s 50th anniversary this year, a milestone most companies don’t often reach today.

Lansdale was founded in 1964 by Edward Pincus when he purchased the rights to manufacture Philco-Ford’s germanium transistor product lines, including the company’s in-stock excess inventory.  In 1976, it was decided to move its headquarters from Lansdale, Penn. to Phoenix, Ariz. after acquiring major product lines from Motorola.

Lillard joined the company four years later in 1980 as Operations Manager.  He was previously with the Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector in Phoenix at their 52nd Street location.  Lillard served as Product Manager and in other engineering management positions while at Motorola.

Six months after joining Lansdale, Lillard was promoted to the executive position of company president at the age of just 29.  In 1987 he purchased Lansdale for an undisclosed sum.  Under his leadership Lansdale continued its pattern of growth by recognizing the need to support legacy ICs originally designed and produced by a number of major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM).  Chip makers such as AMD, Fairchild, Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola SPS), Harris, Intel, National, Philips (formerly Signetics), and Raytheon have all signed contractual agreements with Lansdale to manufacture their ICs for the global electronics component marketplace.  Lansdale manufactures over 3,000 multiple applications technology ICs in all package types from these OEMs and the company is sole source producer of many hi-rel IC products.  This guarantees a continuous reliable supply of products to the worldwide commercial, military/defense, aerospace, telecommunications and wireless RF/IF industries. Lansdale is certified and approved by the United States Department of Defense Supply Center, Columbus (DSCC) and Qualified Manufacturer (QM) under the MIL-PRF-38535 Qualified Manufacturing List (QML), as well as ISO 9001/2008 qualified supplier.

Lansdale’s exclusive product life cycle management system is a quality control system that guarantees form, fit, and function equal to the original manufactures design specifications.  The Lansdale model has become increasingly important as the growth of the counterfeit industry has increased the problem of maintaining a reliable source of components for long-life systems.  “With counterfeit electronic components becoming more of a global industry nightmare, Lansdale’s 50 years of product life cycle management, support and manufacturing using only the OEM’s original tooling has become even more critical in today’s market” stated Lillard.  This assures a continuous source of high performance ICs to the world wide electronic market.

Lansdale created the business concept of the semiconductor aftermarket, manufacturing the ICs as replacement parts that extend the life of the product they go into – just like the auto parts aftermarket products extend the life of motor vehicles on the road today.  In fact, Lillard modeled Lansdale’s business after his grandfather’s aftermarket auto business in Albuquerque, NM, where he worked behind the counter part time during high school and college.  For 50 years, it has proven to be an extremely successful business model.

www.lansdale.com