Cypress Semiconductor Corporation announced Wednesday that it plans to increase capacity at its Bloomington manufacturing facility in 2011, tripling the facility's manufacturing capacity for certain products.

Cypress' Bloomington facility, which has been in operation since 1991, primarily manufactures the company's TrueTouch touchscreen controllers and other products using a process called “S8.” The company said that it has already started increasing production of products that use this technology, and that the capacity expansion will be completed by the third quarter.

The S8 process uses an embedded memory technology called Silicon Oxide Nitride Oxide Silicon, which the company says provides a more manufacturable and cost-effective solution than other similar technologies.

Cypress' announcement comes just two months after another Bloomington semiconductor manufacturer, Polar Semiconductor, Inc., announced plans for significant expansion.

According to the City of Bloomington, Polar Semiconductor will expand on its existing property by adding 98,000 square feet to its Bloomington operations in 2011. The expansion, when completed, will generate the need for about 300 additional employees, according to sources close to the deal.

With the tripling of the production of S8 products, the plant's overall production will increase in 2011. However, spokesman Don Parkman decline to say how much it will increase, saying the company does not reveal specific information about its manufacturing capabilities for competitive reasons.

Parkman said that the company added some employees at the end of last year in anticipation of the expansion, but would not say how many. He said that Cypress will continue to add employees as needed, through the number of additions will depend on demand for the company's products. The facility currently employs more than 500.

“With a record number of design wins in high-volume mobile phone, tablets, and other large-screen platforms, we're moving aggressively to ensure stable, ample, and timely supply of our TrueTouch products,” Norm Taffe, executive vice president of Cypress' consumer and computation division, said in a statement.

Cypress Semiconductor, founded in 1982, is based in San Jose, California. The company employs more than 3,500 and boasted sales of $668 million in 2009, the latest year for which a revenue figure was available.