Powerchip Technology has disclosed plans to implement a corporate restructuring project under which the company will transfer all its 12-inch fab operations to subsidiary Maxchip Electronics, an 8-inch foundry house.

Maxchip will become a dedicated IC foundry operating 8- and 12-inch wafer fabs, and is looking to apply to list on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) by 2020, said Powerchip CEO Frank Huang at a press event on September 4.

Powerchip will continue to wholly own Maxchip, and will position itself as a parent holding company, according to Huang.

Maxchip already has two 8-inch fabs, and will take over Powerchip's three 12-inch fabs in 2019, Huang indicated. Maxchip will also be responsible for the establishment of two new 12-inch fabs in the Tongluo campus of the Hsinchu Science Park (HSP) in northern Taiwan, Huang said.

Powerchip announced previously plans to build two more 12-inch plants in Taiwan that will bring in an additional production capacity of 100,000 wafers monthly to satisfy ever-increasing demand for LCD driver ICs, power management chips and niche-market memory. Total investment in the new fab establishment is estimated at NT$278 billion (US$9.05 billion).

The future Maxchip will be actively working with its Europe-, Japan- and US-based customers in the development of chip technologies for high-end biotech, AI and automotive electronics applications, Huang also noted.