(Yicai Global) March 19 -- China's biggest power and fiber optic cable maker will set up a CNY100 million (USD15.8 million) joint venture with a firm founded by leading Singaporean Chinese scientist Lin Fujiang to develop and manufacture high-end micro-chip products for the 5G and 6G communications sector.

Suzhou-based Hengtong Optic-Electric Co. will provide CNY70 million for the in the link-up with Anhui Chuanxi Microelectronics Co., which will contribute the remaining CNY30 million through its proprietary and non-proprietary technologies, Hengtong Optic-Electric said in a statement.

China is currently leading the global development of 5G networks, which are expected to be at least ten times faster than 4G, and aims to roll out commercial services as early as next year. The number of 5G users worldwide will reach 1 billion by 2023, said telecoms giant Ericsson Ltd. in a report last December. The country is expected to make up more than half of users by 2022, says research firm CCS Insight Ltd.

The joint venture will develop, design and produce RF and microwave front-end semiconductors, millimeter-wave communications, automotive radar chips and high-speed optoelectronic chips, as well as new advanced substrates geared towards chip application scenarios in the 5G mobile communications like RF front-end for mobile phones, anti-collision radars for driverless vehicles and satellite communications.

Lin Fujiang, the founder of Anhui Chuanxi, is one of the world's leading experts in microwave devices and RF integrated circuits, says the announcement. Lin is a professor at the School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hong Kong.