Renesas and Matsushita have expanded their collaboration into the development of 45nm chip manufacturing process. Their joint development of 45nm technology actually started in October 2005, but due to negotiations with other Japanese companies to set up a joint foundry, which eventually failed, Renesas and Matsushita had not yet made any public statement about their evolving collaboration.

The R&D team working on 45nm development is based in Renesas's Itami lab in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and costs are split evenly between both companies. The development is scheduled to be completed by the third quarter of 2007, and both companies expect to apply the 45nm process technology to volume production in fiscal 2008.