Recently, A big brand company’s B2B segment released a new generation of star map series COB small spacing. The size of the product's LED light-emitting chip is only 70μm, and the extremely small light-emitting pixel area improves the contrast.
In fact, all major manufacturers are increasing their R&D and innovation of COB technology and seizing the market. However, in addition to the consensus that "COB is the main high-end direction of packaging technology", there are still considerable differences in MiP and COB technology within the industry.
Judgment of long- and short-term technical routes
As COB extends toward large pitches and MiP moves toward smaller pitches, there will inevitably be a certain degree of competition between the two technical routes. But right now, it's not a life-or-death alternative relationship. Therefore, within a certain period of time and within a certain distance range, COB, MiP, and IMD will coexist with each other. These are all necessary processes for technological development.
From a longer-term perspective, COB has now established a significant first-mover advantage, and companies and brands have fully entered the market; in addition, COB has the natural characteristics of shorter and simpler process links; when mass transfer processes After achieving a breakthrough in terms of price and cost, there is the possibility of conquering cities and territories.
In the current market, high-definition large screens use more LED products with small spacing (below P2.5). Next future, it will continue to develop towards the higher pixel density and smaller pixel pitch, which will promote COB to become an important direction for LED packaging technology upgrading and reforming.
COB development status and characteristics
According to data from an authoritative information company, in the first half of 2023, sales of small-pitch LED displays in mainland China reached 7.33 billion, a slight increase of 0.1% year-on-year; the shipment area reached 498,000 square meters, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%. Among them, although SMD (including IMD) technology is the mainstream, the share of COB technology continues to grow. By the second quarter of 2023, the proportion of sales has reached 10.7%. The overall market share in the first half of the year has increased by about 3 percentage points compared with the same period.
Currently, the product market for small-pitch LED display COB technology presents the following characteristics:
Price: The average price of the whole machine has dropped to less than 50,000 yuan/㎡. The cost of COB packaging technology has dropped significantly, so that the average market price of small-pitch LED display COB products has also dropped significantly than before. In the first half of 2023, the average market price dropped by 28%, reaching an average price of 45,000 yuan/㎡.
Spacing: Concentrate on P1.2 and below products. When the point pitch is less than P1.2, COB packaging technology has an advantage in overall manufacturing cost; COB accounts for more than 60% of products with pitches of P1.2 and below.
Application: mainly monitoring scenarios, mainly needed in professional fields. The small-pitch LED display of COB technology has the characteristics of high density, high brightness, and high definition. In monitoring scenarios, COB shipments account for more than 40%; they are mainly based on customer needs in professional fields, including digital energy, transportation, military, finance and other industries.
Forecast: By 2028, COB will account for more than 30% of small-pitch LEDs
Comprehensive analysis shows that as COB packaging technology forms a positive interaction in three aspects: industrial technology progress, production capacity increase and market demand expansion, it will gradually become an important product technology trend in the development of micro-pitch in the small-pitch LED display industry.
By 2028, COB technology will account for more than 30% of sales in China's small-pitch LED (below P2.5) display market.
From a business perspective, most companies involved in LED display do not focus on just one direction. They usually make progress in both COB and MiP directions. Moreover, as an investment-intensive and technology-intensive industrial field, the evolution of the LED display industry does not completely follow the performance priority principle of "good money drives out bad money". The attitude and strength of the corporate camp may also affect the future two The development of technical routes.
Post time: Nov-09-2023