TSMC said in a filing Monday (Aug. 17) it spent NT$654.5 million ($19.8 million) on equipment from Sokudo Co. Ltd. In an Aug. 14 filing, TSMC disclosed the purchase of NT$564.6 million ($17.1 million) worth of equipment from Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL).

The company has made several similar filings in recent weeks, including the disclosure of an NT$555.6 million ($16.8 million) purchase of equipment from Lam Research Corp. and multiple buys of Applied Materials Inc. gear worth NT$1.71 billion ($52 million).

In filings made earlier this month, TSMC also disclosed buying equipment from KLA-Tencor Corp., Verigy Inc., Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Varian Inc., TEL and ASML. The ASML purchase, disclosed Aug. 3, was worth NT$2.4 billion ($74 million), TSMC said.

TSMC last month raised its capital spending target for 2009 to $2.3 billion from $1.5 billion. The foundry is one of only three companies (along with Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.) expected to spend more than $1 billion on capital expenditures in 2009, down from eight companies that spent more than $1 billion in 2008.

TSMC's equipment spending spree comes at a time when the firm is ramping up its 40-nm process and experiencing low yields.