If SMD was the mainstream in 2013, then in 2014, COB packaging is gradually becoming the mainstream of the market, and the total production volume increased by 20%-30% compared with 2013. Among them, COB packaged bulbs even account for 40%-50% of the market share.
COB integrated light source is chip on board, which means the bare chip is adhered to the interconnection substrate with conductive or non-conductive adhesive, and then wire bonded to achieve its electrical connection.
Because it has the characteristics of easier dimming and color adjustment, anti-glare, and high brightness, it can well solve problems such as chromatic aberration and heat dissipation, and has been widely used in commercial lighting and other fields.
Currently, there are two methods to achieve high-power LED lighting: one is to package a single high-power LED chip; the other is to use multi-chip integrated packaging.
The former can realize high-power LED through high-current driving, but it will be limited by the chip size; the latter has a high cost performance and has become one of the mainstream directions of LED light source packaging.
According to relevant data, the overall share of COB packaging products in my country has exceeded 7%. It is widely used in high-power LEDs such as street lamps, direct backlights, spotlights and other high-brightness application equipment. Its demand will increase from 18.5 billion units in 2014 to 27 billion units in 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 13%.
An international packaging manufacturer predicts that by 2017, mid-power, COB, and high-power will dominate the world in terms of output value.
COB dominates, and domestic and foreign companies compete on the same stage
Since 2013, major international manufacturers such as Citizen, Sharp, Philips Lumileds, Seoul Semiconductor, and CREE have successively launched new COB products with high light efficiency, high quality, and high efficiency in the Chinese market. Domestic major manufacturers are not to be outdone. Hongli Optoelectronics and Yimeixing Optoelectronics have begun mass production and continue to expand production capacity.
For example, Hongli Optoelectronics produced the first generation COB package with a fixed fiber layer as early as 2008. In 2013, the company increased its efforts in promoting COB products and successively launched the "Hong" series of COB products.
Hongli Optoelectronics currently has four fully automated COB packaging production lines, which will be expanded to 8 within the year. The monthly production capacity will reach 3000k, and the output value has jumped to the forefront in the country, of which the main size and customized products account for 50% each.
In 2015, Nationstar Optoelectronics’ white light devices will focus on COB, which is more common in the market. Dr. Xie Zhiguo, deputy director of the R&D Department of Nationstar White Light Device Division, said that since the upstream and downstream supporting facilities of COB are relatively mature and cost-effective, once the versatility is solved, the possibility of large-scale production will increase.
"In three to five years, COB packaging will usher in a big explosion, and foreign brands will gradually withdraw from the Chinese market." Xia Xuesong, general manager of Silicon Lighting, said that because from the perspective of industry rules and the comprehensive resources required by a region, the mainland has unique advantages. At this stage, COB is facing the process of customized demand and will definitely become the mainstream direction of the domestic lighting market in the future.
"Due to the entry of mainstream COB manufacturers such as Citizen and Sharp, the market is now mainly based on their standards, so there is no big problem in terms of versatility." Zou Yiming, general manager of Crescent Optoelectronics, said that the company added 10 production lines in the first quarter, and the COB production capacity will reach 15kk/month in the second quarter.
At this stage, the domestic COB packaging market is still dominated by foreign-funded enterprises such as Citizen, Sharp, and Cree, because they have the advantage of being the first to develop technology and brand awareness in COB light sources.
However, with the gradual maturity of COB technology and the fierce market pressure, the performance of COB packaging devices of some domestic manufacturers has become comparable to that of foreign companies.
Now domestic COB light sources can achieve a luminous efficiency of 110lm/W under the premise that R9 is greater than zero and the color rendering index is greater than 80. After entering 2014, the technological gap between domestic and imported COB has continued to narrow.
Zou Yiming said that the overall luminous efficacy of domestically produced COB will increase by about 10% this year to exceed 120lm/W to better adapt to the current commercial lighting market demand.
At the same time, domestic COBs are opening up the market with higher cost performance and services, and the market share of foreign-funded enterprises is being continuously compressed. At present, high-light-efficiency COBs are circulating in the market, and about 70%-80% of the market share is dominated by domestically produced COB products with high cost performance.
As chip prices continue to fall, the price of mid-power COB has also been reduced, resulting in the price advantage of SMD over COB no longer existing. At the same time, the standardization of COB will further intensify market competition and accelerate replacement.
Volume increases and price decreases, focusing on segmented applications
Since COB gradually entered the market in 2010, its price has been falling all the way in the past four years, from a few yuan per watt to the current few cents per watt.
Zou Yiming said, "The price of COB was 4 yuan/W four years ago. In 2013, the selling price of mainstream products was still around 1.2 yuan/W. By 2014, leaving aside foreign and Taiwanese companies, The price of mainstream COB products from mainland enterprises is about 0.6 yuan/W. "
Among the commonly used COB light source products, the order of their price proportions is: chips, gold wires, glue and brackets.
Among them, chips account for more than 50% of the cost of light sources, and in some cases even close to 70%. The rapid decline in COB prices depends largely on the decline in chip prices.
In the first and second quarters of 2014, the average price of white light low-power chips in my country's market dropped by 9%-15%, and the average price of high-power chips dropped by 10%-17%. Among them, the average price drop of high-end chips gradually expanded, while the average price drop of mid- to low-end chips narrowed.
In the first half of the year, the average quarterly price drop of LED white light chips in the Chinese market was within 17%. This is the first time that the price of white light chips has entered a stable period since the price of white light chips plummeted in the second half of 2010.
Lin Jintian, general manager of Xuyu Optoelectronics, said: "With the intensification of mergers and acquisitions in the industry and the highlight of the trend of big companies, the price of LED products has accelerated. Especially in COB light sources, the gross profit is only about 11%. In the past, lamp beads accounted for one-third of the entire lamp, but now only account for ten One percent, the power supply housing may be two or three times that of the light source. "
After nearly two years of price competition, the COB market has gradually become more rational this year, because the prices of chips, phosphors, glue and other auxiliary materials have reached a relative low point, and the room for subsequent price reductions is very limited.
Under price pressure, COB has become one of the main means for packaging manufacturers to pass on cost pressure. Due to the sharp decline in gross profits, COB light source manufacturers have to control costs by increasing production capacity, and at the same time expand the market by looking for niche applications.
COBs with different packaging forms on the current market have a segmented application trend. For example, the main application areas of high-voltage COBs are bulbs, downlights, and spotlights within 10W. The current market application demand is large and the growth is obvious;
For home lighting, scene lighting, and smart lighting, you can choose dimming and color-adjusting COB light sources; for higher-power commercial lighting or outdoor lighting, you can choose eutectic COB light sources. The market has broad prospects, mass production, high process technology, and large investment.
At the same time, there are many areas of development for COB light sources that can be explored in depth, such as medical lighting, agricultural lighting, automotive lighting, fishery lighting, living lighting, etc.
In response to the different needs of the market, companies can dig deeper into product segmentation and make products more professional. At the same time, they can focus on refined management, large-scale mass production, optimize shipping time, and meet customer delivery needs in a timely manner.
Wang Mengyuan, general manager of Foshan Zhonghao Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., said that COB modules will achieve more functional integration, such as integrating the power supply into the optical engine to achieve de-powering, and ultra-high power integration, with a light source of 100W or even more than 200W. Especially in the industrial and mining fields, high power density integrated light is required.
The other is applications in subdivided fields, which require many uniquely designed light sources, such as the integration of intelligent control modules and the most important spectrum integration in medical lighting. These require high-end professional technology and are also the development process of COB in the future.
Flip-chip COB may be the way out
In 2015, COB prices will continue to fall, and increasingly thin profits will force companies to upgrade process technology, generate performance premiums, or form a new value system. Flip-chip COBs with smaller light sources and higher light efficiency will become the next market trend.
Li Zhong, general manager of Cross-Strait Optoelectronics, said that the company has been the first in the industry to mass-produce flip-chip COB and flip-filament products since the end of 2014, and has received some feedback from the downstream lighting application market. It is expected that the monthly flip-chip production capacity will reach 10KK by the end of this year.
Lin Yujie, general manager of Bornstone Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., said that flip-chip COB modules will be mainly used in high-power products and have higher reliability. The thermal resistance and junction temperature are 30% lower than those of formal chips.
The investment in the flip-chip COB production line can be reduced by 50%. Since there are no gold wires and no brackets, the BOM cost is reduced by more than 20%, and the personnel can be reduced by 30%, greatly improving the cost performance.
However, when it comes to the mass production of flip-chip COB, most manufacturers hold a wait-and-see attitude, mainly because the supply chain of flip-chip COB is immature at present. Domestic companies mostly make samples, and the defective rate is high, so mass production is temporarily impossible. At the same time, the sizes are not uniform, and the processing requirements and customer needs are different, which makes mass production in the market more difficult.
With the ultimate pursuit of cost-effectiveness in the end market, the localization of COB is accelerating. As standards continue to be unified, COB market competition will continue to escalate. In the future, technological upgrading will still be the magic weapon to improve COB performance and reduce prices.
ANNA