Lawrence Semiconductor Names Don Garrison General Manager and Chief Operating Officer

Former Littelfuse semiconductor operations executive brings direct epitaxy leadership to the Tempe manufacturer of engineered silicon and germanium materials as it expands to meet growing demand

TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Lawrence Semiconductor, a U.S.-owned manufacturer of engineered silicon and germanium epitaxial materials, today announced that Don Garrison has joined as General Manager and Chief Operating Officer. Garrison reports to Chief Executive Officer Ali Torabi and leads manufacturing, engineering, quality and customer delivery as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand from photonics, sensing, quantum computing and defense customers.

As a merchant epitaxy foundry, Lawrence manufactures the engineered layers that customers use as starting material for advanced microelectronic, photonic and sensing devices. Its portfolio includes specialized silicon, germanium, silicon-germanium (SiGe), germanium-tin (GeSn) and isotopically enriched silicon-28 epitaxial materials for photonics, sensing, quantum computing, defense and other advanced semiconductor applications. Lawrence is the only merchant source in the United States for production GeSn and silicon-28 epitaxy and one of very few in the world.

"Lawrence makes advanced materials that very few companies in the world can produce, and our customers build their most demanding devices on them," said Ali Torabi, chief executive officer. "Don has run semiconductor manufacturing at far larger scale, and he has run epitaxy, which is rare. With him leading operations, we can invest in capacity with confidence and scale to meet the industry's rapidly growing need for specialty foundry services."

Garrison brings more than 25 years of semiconductor manufacturing leadership. He most recently served as Vice President of Global Operations for the Semiconductor Business Unit at Littelfuse, directing manufacturing, engineering and supply chain across eight fabrication, assembly and test sites and an organization of more than 2,500 people.

Previously he was Director of Fab Operations at NXP Semiconductors in Chandler, Arizona, and led manufacturing excellence initiatives at GlobalFoundries during a high-growth factory startup. Earlier he spent more than a decade at Intel Corporation in technical and manufacturing roles. He has led epitaxial deposition operations directly at multiple companies and lives in the Phoenix area.

"I have run epitaxy before, and it is one of the most unforgiving processes in semiconductor manufacturing. Lawrence has been doing it well for more than 30 years," said Garrison. "My job is to scale the operation to meet demand without compromising the quality and reliability our customers depend on."

Lawrence operates a Class 100 cleanroom in Tempe with 14 epitaxial reactors running around the clock. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified, is certified under the Department of Defense Joint Certification Program and is implementing IATF 16949 to support automotive and high-reliability production programs.

A high-resolution photo of Don Garrison is available on request.

About Lawrence Semiconductor

Lawrence Semiconductor Research Laboratory, Inc. is a privately held, U.S.-owned specialty semiconductor materials manufacturer headquartered in Tempe, Arizona. Founded in 1992, the company supplies custom silicon and germanium epitaxial materials to customers from early research through high-volume production. Its customers span silicon photonics, infrared sensing, power electronics, optical interconnect, quantum computing and defense. For more information, visit lawrencesemi.com.

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SOURCE Lawrence Semiconductor