LONDON: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Infineon Technologies AG and are extending their partnership – in order to develop and produce a 65 nanometer embedded flash process technology.

Jointly, the two companies will develop 65nm process technologies for eFlash microcontrollers (MCUs), meeting the rigorous quality requirements of the automotive industry as also the demanding security needs of the chip-card and security markets.

The extension of partnership between Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Infineon Technologies is in accordance with Infineon Technologies' strategy to outsource manufacturing and to become active in technology co-development for 65nm and smaller geometry processes.

The 65nm eFlash technology for automotive applications is aimed at meeting the safety and emission standards to be in place in future.

Process and product qualification for the security microcontrollers is set for the second half of 2012. Qualification and production of automotive MCUs has been scheduled the first half of 2013.

The 32-bit TriCore family of MCUs, produced by Infineon Technologies, will be the first automotive products made on the 65nm eFlash process. Eventually, TSMC will make Infineon's range of security MCUs, featuring contact-based, contact-less, or dual interface.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Infineon Technologies AG have worked jointly for over a decade now, encompassing various applications like wireline and industrial.