Taiwan-based IC packaging and testing services provider Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) will add investment of US$60 million in its subsidiary ASE (Weihai) in Shandong Province, China to expand its capacity for low pin-count discrete devices, according to ASE.

ASE's board of directors approved the investment plan on November 12. ASE has previously invested US$40 million in the subsidiary, ASE indicated.

Viewing that demand from international IDMs for relatively large-scale supply of low pin-count discrete devices has picked up since June 2010, ASE thus decided to expand the capacity of ASE (Weihai), ASE indicated.

While low pin-count discrete devices accounted for only 2-3% of ASE's consolidated revenues in 2009, the proportion will rise to 10% at the end of 2010 and the product line will be one of the main sources of revenue growth in 2011, ASE said.