United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has announced that it is looking to further increase its production capacity with the purchase of numerous 12-inch CMOS chip manufacturing tools.

The tools will be bought from Texas Instruments (TI) upon closure of a larger asset purchase in Japan that was just announced by TI, the Taiwan-based foundry said.

TI has bought two wafer fabs and manufacturing equipment from Spansion Japan, with the new capacity to meet growing demand for analog chips. A portion of the 300mm tools that come with the acquisition are not needed and will be re-sold, TI indicated.

"Our mutually strong relationship with TI provides us this opportunity to work together to obtain leading-edge 300mm fab equipment at a lower cost and with faster delivery times, compared to placing orders for new equipment," Shih-Wei Sun, CEO of UMC, was cited as saying in a company press release.

UMC did not disclose the financial terms of the equipment purchase.

UMC has budgeted US$1.2-1.5 billion in capex for 2010, a significant jump from US$551 million allocated last year. The company plans to use 94% of the projected capex to expand advanced technology capacity.

By: DocMemory
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