PlayNitride's CEO, Charles Li, says that Micro-LED displays are not as challenging as originally expected, and the company now aims to start trial production of Micro-LED displays in the second half of 2017. The company has mass transfer and placement yield rates of over 99% in its lab.
In PlayNitride's R&D setup, it takes about 10 seconds to transfer and place 200,000 LEDs - which means that a 5" panel will take only 10 minutes to produce. However the cost for a single smartphone panel could reach about $300 - much higher than the cost of even the highest-end flexible OLED. Possible applications where Micro-LED displays could succeed commercially at this stage include smartwatches, VR / AR, automotive and transparent displays.
In April 2017 it was rumored that Samsung Display is set to acquire PlayNitride for around $150 million, but that deal did not materialize.
