PlayNitride

AU Optronics announced an agreement with PlayNitride, to build a 6-inch microLED production line at AUO's Longtan factory. AUO will pay PlayNitride NT$700 million (around $21.5 million USD) for this new line.

AUO says that the new line will utilize PlayNitride's Chip-on-Carrier (COC) technology, that produces the microLEDs on temporary substrates ready for the transfer process. This will enable AUO to more easily realize the production of display panels based on these microLEDs. AUO says that this new line will also enable it to reduce microLED production costs. 

The W Hotel in Taipei has an old Philips OLED installation (called You Fade to Light, designed by rAndom International creative studio). This beautiful piece consists of 2,000 modules, each lighting up as a response to people moving in front of it.

Due to the limited lifetime of the OLED devices, after years of use the installation started to fail and fade (which is rather ironic, given its name). PlayNitride collaborated with the hotel to replace the OLED panels with microLED powered panels. Each single module included over 14,000 microLEDs, and in total there was over 30 million microLEDs - 20% more than the number of microLEDs in a 4K display.

Taiwan-based MicroLED developer PlayNitride that it is increasing its production volume, and by the end of the year it will produce 10,000 6" wafers per month (that's up from about 2,000 wafers per month last year). 

PlayNitride is developing a wide range of displays: tiled large-area displays (PixeLED Matrix), wearable panels, microdisplays, transparent displays, and more.

Taiwan-based MicroLED developer PlayNitride (a MicroLED Industry Association member) has demonstrated its latest microLED displays at Display Week 2023.

First up we have the company's tiled large-area microLED displays, called PixeLED Matrix. The company showed a 166" vertical installation, that is made from 324 modules. The total resolution is 1440x4860 (30 PPI, or a pixel pitch of 0.833 mm). This was a very nice looking demonstration.

AU Optronics released some very interesting information as the company gets ready to showcase its latest microLED displays and technologies at Touch Taiwan 2023.

So first of all, AUO announced that it has finalized the development of its wearable microLED display, and the company is now launching the 1.39" round smartwatch display commercially. AUO demonstrated the wearable microLED display back in 2021 - a 1.39-inch 472x472 full-circle panel, that was developed together with PlayNitride. It's not clear when AUO actually plans to start selling this display to its customers, and what will be its production capacity.

Towards the end of 2020, Samsung announced it's first "consumer" MicroLED TVs that adopt small microLED chips (this followed its professional/commercial TVs that used larger chips and are already in production for several years). These smaller TVs were scrapped later in 2021, and then Samsung further delayed its plans in April 2022 and did so again in June 2022, due to technical issues.

According to the latest report from Korea, Samsung finally started to produce 89-inch LTPS microLED TVs. Its larger 101-inch and 114-inch models, however, are still not in production.

Digitimes reports that PlayNitride is starting to sample microLED panels for 5 or 6 potential automotive customers. The customers are interested in flexible and transparent panels, and they have engaged PlayNitride in custom R&D projects to develop the required displays.

PlayNitride's CEO, Charles Li, noted that the company expects its customers to launch several concept car models in early 2024, equipped with the new microLED displays.

PlayNitride debuted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, and the company, now public, trades on the Taiwan Innovation Board - this is the first company on the new board. The ticker for PlayNitride is 6854.

PlayNitride revealed that in 2021 it posted a net loss of around $40 million USD. In the first seven months of 2022, its revenues reached around $7.3 million USD, up 255% from the same period in 2021. The Company also revealed that it currently produces between 1,500 to 2,000 6-inch microLED wafers each month. PlayNitride expects to turn a profit in 2023.

The MicroLED Industry Association (MIA) successfully concluded its kickoff meeting on August 2^nd. The work plan for the coming quarter was announced, and the association members were updated on work processes, collaboration activities and plans for the future.

The MIA is happy to announce that there are already over 15 members in the microLED association. In addition to its pre-launch founding members, the MIA welcomes the new members that joined since the official announcement on July 13. These companies include 3D Micromac, ASM Pacific Technology group, ClassOne Technology, Radiant Vision Systems and the Ennostar group (Epistar, Lextar, Yenrich and Unikorn).

Today we are happy and proud to announce a new MicroLED Industry Association, created to help accelerate the adoption of microLED display technologies.

The new association will bring together companies, academia and organizations active in the MicroLED industry and provide an ideal forum for solving common technology issues, fostering cooperation and sharing relevant information, resources and tools. The association will also work to promote its member companies, their technologies and products.

You can read more about the MicroLED Industry Association, including the complete list of member benefits, here: https://www.microledassociation.com

This page is still at an early stage, and we are working on a new design which will be updated shortly.