TSMC plans to expand its capacity and R&D in 2011

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) board of directors on November 9 approved a budget of US$2.684.66 million, of which US$1.880.9 million will be for establishing special production capacities and US$803.76 million for R&D in 2011, according to the company.

The US$1.880.9 million budget will be used to set up mini-lines (for trial production) at its Fab 15 in the Central Taiwan Science Park, as well as capacity expansion for advanced manufacturing processes, 12-inch wafer-level chip-scale packaging capacity and specialty-technology production capacity, TSMC said.

There has been strong demand for specialty-technology production, including automotive electronics and MCUs in 2010, TSMC indicated. The board also approved TSMC’s planned additional investment of 9.4 million euro (US$13.08 million) in TSMC Solar Europe, the company’s subsidiary to market solar products and related services in Europe.

Source: DIGITIMES