The six major LED packaging forms are unstoppable. Who will "dominate"?

As a connection point between upstream and downstream industries, LED packaging plays a key role in connecting the past and the next. With the development of LED with high luminous efficiency, power, high reliability and low cost, the requirements for packaging have increased accordingly. As a result, the packaging industry has been in the rapid driving and development stage of new materials and new processes in recent years. Emerging packaging forms and technologies are emerging one after another, such as EMC, COB, flip-chip, CSP... Who will be the king?

New packaging forms are contending

The darling of commercial photos - COB

COB technology has the advantages of soft light, simple circuit design, high cost-effectiveness, saving system space, significant heat dissipation effect, high packaging and output density. Although there are still technical problems in chip integration brightness, color temperature adjustment and system integration, the light quality improvement effect it brings is unmatched by a single high-power device on the market currently, and it has considerable development potential in the LED light source market for lighting.

Therefore, global LED packaging companies continue to upgrade COB packaging technology and continue to optimize the product life, reliability and key luminous efficiency of COB light sources. Emerging COB technologies known as "high quality, high efficiency, and high cost performance" such as MCOB, AC-COB, and flip-chip COB have emerged.

It is understood that COB packaged bulbs have occupied about 40% of the LED bulb market. Its obvious advantages in the field of commercial lighting make it the current mainstream solution for directional lighting, and it may become the mainstay in the packaging field in the future.

The king of cost-effectiveness—EMC

EMC is actually a change in packaging materials. It has the characteristics of high heat resistance, anti-UV, high integration, high current flow, small size, and high stability. It has outstanding advantages in the field of bulb lamps with strict heat dissipation requirements, outdoor lamps with relatively high requirements for VU resistance, and backlights with high stability requirements.

Since EMC was introduced and used in the field of LED packaging in 2014, it has developed significantly in indoor lighting and has quickly become a mainstream product that is "competitive" with SMD and COB.

It is understood that EMC currently mainly has several models such as 3030, 5050, 7070, etc. Among them, the cost performance of 3030 is quite outstanding, and the light efficiency is almost the same as that of COB. The 5050 and 7070 can replace 3-7W and 7-15W COB products respectively, and can save more than 30% of light source costs.

Then an upgraded version of EMC appeared - SMC made of silicone. Its heat resistance and UV resistance are one level higher than EMC's epoxy material. It may be used in flip-chip chips in the future. Although its cost has increased, the power has also increased accordingly, and the production process can continue to use the original EMC packaging process.

At present, street lamp manufacturers have been gradually introducing EMC and SMC packaging products, and they will also have a place in the application of small and medium power in the future.

Obvious advantages of high power - flip chip

Flip-chip chips have the advantages of small size, enhanced functional performance, high reliability, and fast heat dissipation. However, due to cost and other reasons in the early stages of development, the downstream terminal market remained silent. Technological breakthroughs in recent years have made its application scope wider and wider, and its market share has increased rapidly. Most packaging companies have regarded this packaging technology as a key research and development and innovation direction.

At present, flip-chip LED technology has great advantages in high-power products and integrated packaging, but in small and medium-power applications, the cost competitiveness is not strong, and it will take some time to digest the increase in front-end equipment costs caused by process subversion.

The backlight market is accelerating—CSP

It is understandable that CSP is the most topical packaging form in the packaging industry nowadays. It has low light efficiency, difficult welding, light color consistency, and high cost. However, its small light-emitting surface, high light density, uniform color, and small size can increase application flexibility and have great potential for cost reduction. Especially in LED bulbs, LED tubes, etc., it has excellent design flexibility and has become a blue ocean market that major companies are competing for.

At this stage, CSP's market share in the LED backlight field and mobile phone flash field is maintaining a growth rate, but in the lighting field there are still few companies that can achieve mass production. Because under the premise of the same light efficiency, CSP has no obvious advantages over mature mid-power SMD in terms of light efficiency and cost performance. And currently, most CSPs are developed based on flip-chips, and the yield and light efficiency of flip-chips have not yet reached the results of formal chips. At the same time, there are not enough companies producing CSP, the scale effect is not obvious, and the cost has not been reduced to the range of popularization.

High color consistency - RP

(Remote Phosphor Encapsulation Technology) The relative performance of RP packaging technology is more outstanding: first, the phosphor powder is far away from the LED chip, and the phosphor powder is not easily affected by the heating of the PN junction, extending the life of the light source; second, the structure of the phosphor powder away from the chip design is conducive to light extraction and improves the luminous efficiency of the light source. Third, the light color space is evenly distributed and the color consistency is high.

In recent years, UV-excited remote packaging technology has attracted great attention. Compared with traditional UV light sources, it has unique advantages, including low power consumption, fast luminous response, high reliability, high radiation efficiency, long life, no pollution to the environment, compact structure and many other advantages. However, progress is relatively slow at present, and only a few companies have invested in R&D.

Highly integrated—AC LED

This year, SMD+IC and AC-COB have become the main products of major packaging companies, especially domestic packaging companies. It seems that "packaging companies no longer focus on packaging, but instead 'cross-border' AC modules and integrated light sources."

AC LED can reduce lamp driving costs by 20%-30%, effectively avoid damage to LED lamps caused by driving power, and conforms to the development trend of simplicity and high integration. However, problems such as poor heat dissipation, low stability, and stroboscopicity have prevented it from being truly marketed. AC LED technology has made breakthroughs in the past two years, especially Seoul Semiconductor, which has spared no effort to advance in this field. Its products have been able to improve the light flicker problem of AC LED itself and can realize intelligent lighting functions.

Various packaging forms intersect with each other

It is precisely because of the contention of various packaging forms that healthy competition in the packaging industry can develop healthily. The diversification of packaging technology is the result of technological innovation and is also produced to adapt to the different application needs of LED in different fields or places. Each packaging form has its specific application advantages and forms a targeted market. It is impossible to say which packaging form will become the mainstream. For a long time, each packaging form will occupy a part of the market.

“COB, EMC, flip-chip, CSP and other technologies each have their own advantages, and they are intertwined rather than isolated. For example, COB and CSP focus on packaging form, EMC focuses on packaging materials, while flip-chip mainly focuses on chip types and their corresponding chip placement methods, so they intersect and merge with each other.” Dr. Li Cheng, deputy general manager of Nationstar Optoelectronics and director of the R&D center, said.

Wang Jinhua, deputy general manager of Foshan Zhonghao Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., also holds the same view: "They will overlap in the field of packaging applications, but each has its own characteristics."

Dr. Sun Jiaxin of Fujian Tiandian Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. analyzed the application fields of each packaging form, "COB is suitable for commercial lighting lamps, focusing on light color and light quality; flip-chip is suitable for use in mobile phone flashlights and street lights; CSP has been growing in the field of LED backlight and mobile phone flashlights; EMC occupies a large market share in the alternative lamp market with the largest market capacity, such as light bulbs, lamp tubes, panel lights, downlights, etc., which have used a large number of EMC lamp beads

Wu Dake, executive deputy general manager of Zhaoxin Optoelectronics, believes that EMC is more in line with the current development status of China's industry. It is a technological improvement. "COB is not strictly an innovation in packaging form. It is a high-power light source module based on cost pressure. CSP has little impact on small and medium-sized enterprises. Generally, it is While the market is following the trend, large companies are under pressure to be the first to take advantage of advanced technologies. "

"Which packaging form is more suitable for the market in the future will mainly depend on the market's acceptance of price," concluded Sun Shaofeng, marketing director of Mulinsen Co., Ltd.

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