European independent research center IMEC has recently signed a new research agreement with foundry giant TSMC in which both groups plan to collaborate on R&D for integrated circuits based on the 22nm process and beyond.

For some time, TSMC has been contemplating an internal solution to combat the effects of the slow economy and concluded that it will invest a significant amount of resources in the creation of a new R&D team that will be based at IMEC facilities in Belgium. This will allow TSMC to gain access to IMEC's state-of-the-art clean room infrastructure, which has been claimed to house the most advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools on the planet.

IMEC’s executive VP and chief operating officer Luc Van den hove stated, "This agreement with TSMC represents an extension of our long-term strategic and fruitful partnership. We are proud that TSMC joins forces with IMEC to strengthen their global R&D. This proves the industrial importance of our semiconductor scaling research. We are confident that IMEC's joint research model will contribute to TSMC's 'collaborate to innovate’ approach.”

Over the course of this year alone, TSMC plans to shell out $1.5 billion on capital expenditure and is prepared to invest some of its proprietary tech in an attempt to speed up consumer technology adoption. More specifically, it plans to expand its current global R&D headcount by more than thirty percent from its current 1200 employees.