STC FOOTSCRAY

During 1988-1992 I worked in the design group at STC Footscray first as design manager and then as manager of the microelectronics design centre. (STC plc was formerly known as  Standard Telephone and Cable Ltd. - see Grace's Guide and Wikipedia). STC had a complete integrated circuit manufacturing facility at Footscray and was well known for its range of high-reliability ICs for transoceanic cables and for its telecom ICs. This was quite an advance for a site which was once famous for it's thermionic valves going back to 1933 - best known under the 'Brimar' trademark - and before that as a silk mill). Towards the end of this period, STC was bought by Northern Telecom and the Footscray site, by this time trailing global technology levels, was closed down with the design centre being integrated into the research centre at STL in Harlow.

Whilst at STC I designed the telephone dialler integrated circuits used for some years in the BT range of 'Relate' telephone handsets with over 4 million ICs being produced. The ICs were specialised microprocessors with dedicated circuitry to handle the specialised needs of a telephone handset. In its usual fast-moving style, the Footscray plant developed this into the 'telemodule' which incorporated both integrated circuits and passive components into a single module combining high reliability with performance exceeding BT's stringent requirements for RF rejection. An in-house printed-circuit-board facility using the latest Fuji surface-mount technology was quickly installed supplying STC's telephone manufacturing division in Cwmcarn (acquired in 1990 from BT through its forced withdrawal from in-house manufacture).

The demise of STC Footscray was marked by a commemorative brochure - 'Farewell Footscray' (note - 3Mb pdf file). Or as individual pages:

Page last updated by on 28/8/2012