What is COB(Chip On Board)?

COB light source means that the chip is directly bonded and packaged on the entire substrate, that is, N chips are integrated together on the inner substrate for packaging, and the LED chip is directly attached to the mirror metal substrate or ceramic substrate with high reflectivity.

It is mainly used to solve the problem that low-power chips are difficult to manufacture high-wattage LED lights, which can disperse the heat of the chip, improve the light efficiency, and improve the glare effect of the LED lights. COB has high luminous flux density, less glare and soft light, and it emits a uniformly distributed light surface.

The COB light source eliminates the bracket during the production process, and does not require electroplating, reflow soldering, patching and other processes, so the cost also saves more costs. Under the premise of the same wattage, the cost of COB light is generally lower than that of SMD light fixtures.

The COB light source can be simply understood as a high-power integrated surface light source, and the light emitting area and shape size of the light source can be designed according to the shape and structure of the product. In markets, the COB size mainly includes 11mm, 17mm, 20mm, 23mm, 32mm, 42mm, and 60mm for different wattage. The wattage generally larger than 3Watt.

Feature of COB LED Chips

  1. Electrical stability, scientific and reasonable circuit design, optical design, and heat dissipation design.
  2. The use of heat sink technology ensures that the LED has an industry-leading heat lumen maintenance rate (95%). The lifetime longer than 50000Hrs.
  3. It is convenient for the secondary optical matching of the product and improves the lighting quality.
  4. High color rendering, generally COB Chips RA more than 90. Uniform luminescence, no spot, healthy and environmentally friendly.
  5. Simple installation, convenient use, reducing the difficulty of lamp design, saving lamp production processing and subsequent maintenance costs.

Some of our COB LED Lights

What is SMD(Surface Mounted Devices)?

SMD is the abbreviation of Surface Mounted Devices, which is one of SMT (Surface Mount Technology) components. There is only a single chip or a few chips on each light source.

The light emitted by the SMD light source is divergent. When forming an LED lamp, it is often used with a reflector. Generally, the power of a single light source is low.

It is suitable for laying a large number of aluminum substrates to form high-power products. As far, the main SMD LED chips is as following:

Model/TypesSMD LED 3030SMD LED 2835SMD LED 5050
Size3.0*3.0*0.52mm2.8×3.5×0.8mm5.0*5.0*1.6mm
Wattage1Watt/pcs0.2Watt/pcs is original. But right now, 0.5Watt/pcs and 1Watt/pcs are more and more0.2Watt/pcs is original type, but now, mostly 3Watt-5Watt/pcs
Voltage & Current6.2V 150mA as standard, but 3.2V 300mA available3.2V output voltage,60mA for 0.2W; 150mA for 0.5W, 300mA for 1Watt.3.2V 60mA for 0.2W;
LumensAverage 110-160lm/pcs, 200lm/pcs Max24-36lm/pcs for 0.2W type; 55-70lm/pcs for 0.5W type; 110-140lm/pcs for 1W type.24-28lm/pcs for 0.2Watt. 200lm/watt for 3-5Watt type.
Famous brand(manufacturers)LUMINUS(Philips), Osram, BridgeluxOsram, EPISTAR, BridgeluxCREE, Bridgelux, PHILIPS
ApplicationsStreet lighting, Flood lights, High- bay lights0.2Watt type mainly for T8 LED Tube, bulb; 0.5Watt chips mainly for LED Panel lights, led downlights; 1Watt chip mainly for LED Flood lights, high bay lights, street lights etc.0.2W 5050 Chips mainly for DC12V 24V low voltage led flexible strip light. The 3Watt-5watt SMD5050 mainly for stadium floodlight, high power street lights

Some of our SMD LED Lights

What is the difference between COB and SMD chip?

1. The production process is different.

  • SMD: The LED chip is fixed on the pad of the lamp bead holder with conductive glue and insulating glue, and then welded with the same conduction performance as the COB package. After the performance test, it is encapsulated with epoxy resin, and then the light is split, Cutting and taping, transport to the screen factory and other processes.
  • COB: The LED chip is directly fixed on the soldering pad of the lamp bead on the PCB board with conductive glue and insulating glue, and then the conduction performance of the LED chip is welded. After the test is completed, it is encapsulated with epoxy resin.

2. The luminous effect is different

  • SMD: The light-emitting surface of the SMD LED chip is scattered and there is glare
  • COB: The viewing angle of COB is large and easy to adjust, and there is no glare.

Generally, The Led lights with COB chips have uniform and round spots, no astigmatism, no black spots, and no shadows; while Led luminaires with SMD chips have bright spots in the middle of the spot, halos on the outer edges, and uneven light spot transitions. You can refer to this difference about COB LED Downlight and SMD LED Downlight.

Left: COB | Right: SMD

3. Packaging method: Single-point light-emitting Vs Multi-point light-emitting.

  • SMD: SMD packaging uses surface mount technology to attach multiple discrete LED lamp beads to a PCB board to form a light source component for LED applications. It is a multi-point light source form.
  • COB: COB packaging is a high-efficiency integrated light source technology. N chips are integrated on the inner substrate for packaging, and low-power chips are used to manufacture high-power LED chips to form a uniform small light-emitting surface.

4. Different heat dissipation effect

The small chips of COB light source are densely arranged to generate large and concentrated heat. The packaging material absorbs the heat and superimposes the heat inside the lamp body. However, it has a low thermal resistance heat dissipation method of “chip-solid glue-aluminum”, and heat dissipation is guaranteed. The SMD light source is limited by the package, and the heat dissipation needs to go through the steps of “chip-bonding glue-solder-solder-copper foil-insulating layer-aluminum”, and the thermal resistance is slightly larger;

But in the production of high-power lamps. SMD lamp beads are often arranged and dispersed, and the heat dissipation area is large, and the heat is easy to conduct. The temperature of the whole lamp is also acceptable in the long-term use. Therefore, for the temperature of the entire lamp, the general SMD solution is better than the COB solution

5. Different application areas

COB light sources are generally used in indoor lamps such as downlighter and spotlights, and the power is basically less than 50Watt. And SMD led chips can be used in almost all indoor and outdoor lamps, which can be composed of different numbers of SMD led chips with different powers, even more than 2000Watt.

6. Different color rendering index (CRI)

The color rendering index of most SMD led chips on the market is generally 70-80, and some brands have CRI90 options, such as Osram SMD2835. Most of the COB chips are above CRI90, even up to CRI97. This is also a good color rendering index. This is the reason why indoor commercial lighting with higher index requirements often choose COB led lamps.

Hello, customers

My name is Ricky Wang, I’m the business manager of GRNLED. I have been in LED lights industry for more than 10 year. Feel free to contact us. I’m happy to provide you the best service and products.

Email:  info@grnled.com | WeChat: ledfixture

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