On June 23, Micro LED developer PlayNitride held an investor conference, announcing the upcoming IPO plan along with its future prospects. If the company successfully goes public—currently scheduled for 3Q22 with a total of 6,305,000 shares listed through capital increase with a share capital of NTD 1.07 billion—it will become the first company listed on the Taiwan Innovation Board, a new trading platform established by TWSE in an effort to hatch Taiwanese unicorns.

Founded in 2014, PlayNitride specializes in research and development of Micro LED technologies for next-gen displays. The firm has three major product lines, namely the TFT-driven PixeLEDDisplay for automotive and consumer electronics, PCB-driven PixeLED Matrix for large-size tiled displays, and CMOS-driven μ-PixeLED for AR glasses. Known for high efficiency, long lifetime, great reliability, excellent brightness and contrast ratio, Micro LED—as PlayNitride predicts—will mainly be used for three applications in the coming years; that is, large-size displays, automotive displays and AR devices. Boasting leading technologies for epitaxy, mass transfer (especially its chip-on-carrier technology) and other critical processes, the Micro LED supplier has gained favor with iconic players, with Samsung being its biggest investor, followed by AUO and Ennostar.

During the conference, PlayNitride CEO Charles (Yun-Li) Li emphasized that Micro LED will thrive because the technology can inspire the creation of diverse consumer applications. However, cost reduction remains the biggest challenge. To solve the problem, PlayNitride proposed a comprehensive solution with an aim to largely cut the manufacturing cost. Li also revealed that the cost of Micro LED displays will impressively fall by 95% between the 2020–2026 period in the best-case scenario after chip size becomes smaller plus improvements of relevant technologies.

Building the first Micro LED production line in 2019, PlayNitride has developed comprehensive technologies involving epitaxy, chip-making, mass transfer, mass inspection and mass repair. Such ability to integrate technologies used in different processes has enabled the LED maker to become one of the very few companies that have shipped actual Micro LED products to its customers. Moreover, the company is able to develop various solutions according to customer needs by using the self-developed 6" RGB LED technology featuring excellent chip yield (>99.5%), wafer utilization rate (>80%) and compatibility with mass transfer, inspection and repair.

Unlike LCD and OLED that have already entered the maturity phase, Micro LED is highly promising, particularly in its potential applications for large-size display. According to a recent report published by market research firm TrendForce, revenue from Micro LED chips for large-size displays will jump from USD 54 million in 2022 to USD 4.5 billion in 2026 with a CAGR of 204%.

Currently, the company has secured solid orders and is expected to turn losses into profits starting in 4Q23 while enjoying strong revenue growth in 2024. Following the IPO, PlayNitride will literally become the first Micro LED “concept stock”, which will further stimulate the development of this cutting-edge display technology.

By LEDinside