May 9, 2007 – TSMC says its board of directors has approved capital appropriation of $205 million to expand 45nm process capabilities at the company’s Fab 12 facility. The board also approved a capital increase involving issuing about 3.3 million new TSMC common shares, resulting from employees exercising stock options, with May 15 set as the date of the increase.

Most of TSMC’s ~$560M in capex during 1Q07 (which was a 26% decline vs. the prior quarter) went toward tool purchases for its two 300mm sites, Fab 12 and Fab 14. The company has indicated wants to boost Fab 12’s capacity by ~20% this year.

TSMC has said it will complete 45nm qualification and enter production as early as September, ahead of initial 4Q07 plans, starting with a low-power process followed by a general purpose and high-performance process, and then a 45nm logic family with low-power triple gate oxide option.