Comparison of COB , SMD and 4in1SMD

What are COB, SMD, 4 IN 1 SMD?

COB： SMD： 4 IN 1 SMD:

chip on board Surface Mounted Devices Four SMD integrated packages
Chips directly integrated
Filling
填充胶glue SMT
SMT贴片LED灯
chip LED lamp
packed on PCB board LED lamp foot
LED灯灯脚金属支架
metal bracket

PCB板
PCB board

For indoor Pixel＜2mm Special made lamps for each pixels

Mainly use SMD1010,
SMD0808,SMD0606
Chip package
SMT贴片LED灯
SMT chip LED lamp
Chip package
After the LED
LED lamp encapsulation,
foot
LED灯灯脚金属支架
After the LED encapsulation, then solder SMD legs to the PCB.
metal bracket

then solder SMD legs to the

PCB.
PCB板
 Time to market of COB, SMD, 4 IN 1 SMD

COB products were Ledman exhibited

exhibited for the first COB products at
time at the CES 2012. ISE 2018.

Crystal LED

2012 2018 2019

At ISE 2019, some

Chinese
SMD fine pitch
manufacturers
products are
exhibited four-in-
launched.
one products.
 Technical routes chosen by different companies in the
LED display industry (incomplete statistics)

COB SMD Four-in-one

Domestic listed Ledman、Unilumin Leyard、Unilumin、 Leyard、Unilumin、

companies. Absen、Ledman、 Absen、
(excluding subsidiaries
of listed companies)
Domestic unlisted Few companies can make it as many Not much.
companies produce COB screen needs both
technology of LED package
and technology of LED
screen.

Foreign companies Sony、 Samsung、Daktronic many Not much.

 Differences among different technical routes of COB, SMD, 4IN1-SMD,

SMD technology and 4 in 1 SMD route are similar,

COB technology route on the basis of SMD technology route, but it has get rid of soldering process and
reflow soldering process, which the reason why COB has a 10 times lower failure rate compare to SMD screen.
 Bottleneck of SMD fine pitch LED display technology

The biggest advantage of SMD technology is that it inherits all the engineering process characteristics of the
traditional pitch LED display screen, and the middle and upper reaches of the market is highly mature.

The development of SMD technology in the field of fine-pitch display has encountered bottlenecks: a large
number of solder joints in SMD packaging, poor air tightness and poor protection, resulting in more reliability
problems such as dead lights, caterpillars and so on. The welding area of the lamp bead welding pad is
small, and it is easy to damage the lamp bead when it is knocked in the process of handling, installation and
usage. The lamp bead welding pad is exposed, and people touches the screen in a dry environment, and the
influence of static electricity can easily lead to the breakdown of lamp beads. The dust between the lamp
beads cannot be cleaned. SMD is very difficult in the application of display screen where the point spacing is
less than 1.0mm.
 Bottleneck of SMD fine pitch LED display technology

Metal

Because the LED small spacing products SMD: due to the different SMD: Due to the
packaged by SMD need SMT on PCB, coefficient of thermal expansion of uneven surface, the LED
calculated by P1.2mm, SMD small spacing different materials, the place where is easily knocked off
products have more than 2 million solder marked by red arrow is easy to have and the dust cannot be
joints than COB products, therefore, the cracks, s and water or moist air can wiped at the same time.
reliability of SMD small spacing products is easy to enter the inside and finally
relatively poor, LED failure rate ≥ 50PPM. corrode the chip。
 The Origin, advantages and disadvantages of 4IN1-SMD fine
pitch display Technology

In order to improve the anti-collision performance, and in order to make a LED display screen with less
than 1.0mm dot spacing, a four-in-one package SMD appeared.
However, the four-in-one welding foot is exposed, the air tightness is still not good, moisture-proof
performance, anti-static performance is still not good.
Four SMD integrated packages together, resulting in color separation is not easy to deal with.
It is very difficult to clean the dust between the lamp beads.
The specification is not flexible, and the spacing between a few points can only be fixed, so it is
impossible to produce in large quantities, and it is difficult to reduce the cost.
 The Origin, advantages and disadvantages of 4IN1-SMD fine
pitch display Technology

There is a color inconsistency

between the black screen lights. Lamp foot reflection Up close, optical crosstalk between
There are splicing gaps. four lights
 COB fine pitch display Technology
COB technology omits the SMD LED packaging process, color separation, braiding, patch and other
technological processes. COB greatly shortens the process path, and reduces the solder joints of LED which
help greatly improve the PPM(Failure rate of per million during a period of usage time) . (because the LED small
spacing products packaged by SMD need SMT on PCB. So, take 1 sqm P1.26mm for example, SMD P1.26
products have more than 2.5 million welding joints than COB products). From this aspect, COB improves the
reliability of the production process. )

The integral filling and sealing of the COB product panel has the advantages of moisture resistance, anti-
collision, no bare pins, anti-static breakdown, and improve the reliability of the use process. According to
the data statistics, the average failure rate of COB is 10 times lower than that of SMD, which effectively improves
the reliability and stability of LED display screen.
 COB fine pitch display Technology

COB technology to achieve the "point" light

source to "surface" light source, no pixel particle
sense; the pixel center brightness can be
effectively controlled, reduce light intensity
radiation, suppress moire, glare and glaring
damage to the retina, suitable for close-up,
long-time viewing, not easy to produce visual
fatigue, is the best solution for scenes that
require close viewing of the display screen., such
as meetings, monitoring, command and
control center.
 Brief introduction of Moire pattern

The generation of moire pattern is the interference of waveforms between different

objects, which is a manifestation of the beat principle.
Because the photographic element (CCD or CMOS) such as the camera has a spatial
frequency, the spatial frequency of the pixel of the photosensitive element (CCD or
CMOS) is close to the spatial frequency of the image to be photographed, which will
produce a new pattern, which is the moire pattern.
The LED display screen is made up of discrete pixels, and there is an obvious non-
luminous black area between the pixels, forming a grid pattern, which forms a moire
pattern in the process of being photographed by the camera.

The solution to the moire pattern is to optically treat the surface of the display screen,
enlarge and display the discrete LED luminous points, and convert the point
luminescence into surface luminescence to eliminate the moire pattern.
 Comparison of COB, SMD, 4IN1-SMD
In terms of technology, COB involves two very important technologies: one is point-by-point
correction technology, and the other is single-point maintenance technology.
At present, the luminance chromaticity point-by-point homogenization correction technology and the field
correction technology have been very mature.
Compare with the traditional watch paste LED display screen, the vast majority of people in the industry
think that the COB display screen is more complex and more difficult to maintain, which is actually a
misunderstanding. Because the protective performance of COB products is quite excellent, there is
actually no cost for after-sale maintenance, but customers and integrators can only repair part of
the PCB board, so they feel that the maintenance process is complicated. In fact, the repairable
degree of COB technology is better than that of table stickers.
Watch sticker products break a lamp, which is easy to leave a very obvious mark after maintenance, while
COB products use special equipment for single point maintenance, there is no such problem.
 Comparison of COB, SMD, 4IN1-SMD

From the user's point of view, many users are

government departments and confidential units, and
outsiders are not allowed to enter the site for
maintenance, and users can not reach the technical
level of on-site maintenance, so many SMD small
spacing displays actually require users to change
modules and send them to manufacturers for repair,
which is the same as COB maintenance process.

After the SMD product module

changes the light on the spot
 COB vs SMD, 4IN1-SMD, summary
Name COB SMD 4IN1-SMD
Time to market 2012 (Ledman is 2018) 2012 2019

Large Sony、 Samsung、Daktronic、Ledman、Unilumin Basically have Leyard、Unilumin、Absen、

companies
adopting the
technology

Brightness and The pixel parameters of COB package can not be sorted and mixed, SMD products are Worse than SMD.
chromaticity and the chromaticity and luminance consistency of the whole screen is tested and sorted after
uniformity worse than that of SMD. However, Through the specially optimized packaging, "mixed
point-by-point chromaticity correction technology, COB can ensure that lights" are carried out
the brightness consistency of the whole screen is more than 98%, and before braiding, and
the difference of color coordinates is less than 0.003.
then mixed again when
SMT is affixed with lamp
beads, the overall
consistency is good.

Black screen COB products are prone to chromatic aberration between modules, basically no color Worse than SMD.
color which is worse than SMD. difference in the whole
consistency screen of SMD
products.

Moiré effect The surface light source basically has no Moir é effect. The moire effect of point The moire effect of point
light source is obvious. light source is obvious.
 COB vs SMD, four-in-one, summary
Name COB SMD 4IN1-SMD

Moistureproof Good, up to 90%. Not good, ≤80%. Not good, ≤80%.

performance

Anti-collision Module-level packaging, good. Single lamp package, very poor. Better than SMD.
performance

Antistatic The metal pins are not exposed. Good. The metal pin is exposed, easy to touch, 金The metal pin is exposed,
performance not good. easy to touch, not good.

LED failure rate <2PPM ≥50PPM ≥50PPM

Maintenance LED cannot be repaired on site. LED can be repaired on site. LED can be repaired on site.
performance

Maturity of With the gradual improvement of technology The upstream and downstream The specification is not
industrial chain maturity, there are predictions in the industry that industries are mature and have a high flexible and it is not easy to
there will be a big outbreak in 2021. degree of technological maturity. produce on a large scale.
The technology is relatively
mature.
Some of LEDMAN COB P1.5 in reception hall in Japan
LEDMAN
COB
screen
photos

WWW.LEDMAN.COM
Some of Ledman COB P1.2 in command center

LEDMAN
COB
screen
photos

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Some of
LEDMAN
COB
screen
photos

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