Spansion announced that it will expand foundry contract manufacturing agreement with SMIC, according to a May 18, 2011 report by the Economic Daily News of Taiwan. It is reported that the expanded agreement will include 65nm capacity and manufacturing of Spansion's 45nm flash memory. As per the agreement, Spansion will prepay SMIC US$50 million against wafer procurement in the future over the next 12 months. It is projected that the prepayment will be used by SMIC to purchase equipment for Spansion's fabrication processes. Spansion plans to transfer its 45nm flash technology to SMIC starting from May this year, with volume production slated to begin in the first half of 2012.