Qualcomm has announced that it will set up three technology and testing centers in Taiwan as it deepens its collaborative efforts with the local government and business concerns to accelerate the commercial realization of 5G and other advanced technologies.

Under the plans, Qualcomm will establish a 5G module research and design center as well as a millimeter-wave (mmWave) testing center and a biometric sensing technology center, in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan.

The planned three centers will be parts of a more large-scale Center for Operations, Manufacturing Engineering and Testing (COMET) that the US-based chipmaker announced in August that it will open in Taiwan in early 2019 as its new operations hub in the region.

The 5G module research and design center aims to roll out plug-and-play solutions to lower the technology barriers that will enable small- and medium-size enterprises to enter the 5G market without the need of huge capital, according to Roawen Chen, senior vice president of manufacturing technology and operations at Qualcomm.

Qualcomm aims to work together with local companies to develop related 5G technologies from the very beginning phase to enable and accelerate time-to-market of their 5G products, Chen said at a press conference held in Taipei recently.

The 5G modules developed in the center can also be applied to other segments, such as automotive devices, IoT applications and AR/VR devices, Chen added.

Qualcomm also said earlier that it plans to establish a multimedia research and development center and a mobile artificial intelligence (AI) enablement center in Taiwan in 2019.