The COB LED Screen proportion has exceeded 15% and enters the "explosive period".

The COB LED Screen proportion has exceeded 15% and enters the "explosive period".

Compared to MIP's "high-profile" approach, COB LED Screen seemed relatively "low-key" in the second quarter of 2023. However, in fact, COB LED Screen is entering a period of rapid increase in market share and accelerated application deployment.

EXCEL LED noticed that in the recently held Beijing InfoComm China 2023, nearly half of the vendors showcased their COB LED display products, which indicates that COB LED Screen is gaining popularity and more vendors are breaking through the relatively high technological barriers.

According to the research data from EXCEL LED, the sales of COB displays in China exceeded 200 million dollars in 2022. Despite the overall decline in the sales of LED displays throughout the year, the COB market still maintained a certain level of growth.

The data shows that the total market size of the LED display industry in China was about 7 billion dollars in 2022, with the fine-pitch LED display market accounting for approximately 2.5 billion dollars.

                                                 TO   Buy   COB LED SCREEN

Based on this calculation, COB displays accounted for about 8.52% of the entire fine-pitch LED display market in 2022.

However, EXCEL LED believes that with the gradual development of fine-pitch display technology and the decrease in costs, the COB display sub-market will continue to maintain a growth rate of over 30% in the coming years.

1:

Various players have arrived, COB penetration rate continues to rise

Looking back at the history of LED display development, technological innovation, especially disruptive technological changes, has played an important value in every key historical period of the industry's development.

Especially in the era of fine-pitch displays, MLED has been the mainstream direction of fine-pitch display development, while COB technology is the best route, especially for future Micro LED development.

Currently, the production of fine-pitch LED display products on the market is mainly based on SMD technology. However, as LED display products continue to develop towards higher pixel density and smaller pixel pitch, COB technology has become the direction of transformation for fine-pitch LED displays, with a continuous increase in penetration rate.

"COB is actually a disruptive innovation that brings about a revolutionary improvement in the industry. It combines the packaging technology in the midstream and the display technology downstream, thus integrating the midstream and downstream of the industrial chain," said a senior expert in the LED display industry. He also stated that the application cost of COB technology and SMD technology for P1.2 products is equally matched. When it comes to P0.9, the comprehensive application cost of COB is far lower than that of SMD. The smaller the pixel pitch, the more obvious the comprehensive cost advantage of COB.

Another LED display module factory manager also agrees with this view, especially when it comes to below P1.0, the technical advantages of COB will become more apparent.

In recent years, EXCEL LED's research has found that both the increasing number of companies showcasing COB products at exhibitions and the market situation indicate that downstream customers have a higher level of understanding and acceptance of COB displays.

The vast market space also attracts more and more screen and packaging module manufacturers to enter the COB camp. On March 17th, MTC held a signing ceremony for 1,100 COB production lines and publicly announced a new strategy - aiming to become the world's largest COB display panel manufacturer and promote the popularity of COB displays.

According to EXCEL LED's research, MTC constructed 100 production lines in 2021, and it is expected to expand to 600 production lines by 2022. By 2023, it is estimated to expand to 1,600 to 1,700 lines, and in the future, MTC will exceed 5,000 lines.

Following closely, another major LED display manufacturer in Shanxi held a grand launch ceremony for a new COB display project with an overall investment of 850 million USD on March 28th.

In addition, since 2023, a certain company's COB products have achieved a leading position in self-research, self-production, and self-sales in the industry. Currently, its Mini/Micro products have achieved full coverage in application scenarios ranging from P0.3 to P4.0. Furthermore, at major exhibitions this year, COB has appeared on an increasing number of company booths, indicating the unstoppable momentum of COB.

2:

Improved Yield, Reduced Cost: the Advantages of COB Stand Out

The main obstacles to the popularization of COB have always been yield and cost. However, with the gradual maturity of technology and continuous progress in processes, the yield of COB displays has rapidly improved, accompanied by a decrease in cost due to increased yield and shipping volume.

The yield of COB products has increased from over 95% in 2019 to over 98% in 2022.

The many technical advantages of COB (chip-on-board) also determine that COB will quickly expand its presence in the field of small-pitch displays.

Firstly, the LED display screens using COB packaging can dissipate heat quickly through the PCB board, with a low thermal resistance. As a result, the screens can operate at lower temperatures and have strong heat dissipation capability, low power consumption, and long lifespan.

Secondly, the LED display screens using COB packaging have no physical barriers between the chips, allowing for more display pixels per unit area. This enables smaller pitch, clearer images, fuller display, richer colors, and higher finesse, with characteristics such as smaller pitch, better picture quality, and wider viewing angles.

Additionally, the LED display screens using COB packaging have integrated module design, eliminating multiple processes and devices required by SMD packaging LED screens. This reduces installation space and weight, simplifies installation steps and methods, and has advantages in terms of lower cost, easier installation, and more convenient maintenance.

Inverted COB packaging technology performs better than SMD and IMD in terms of electrical connectivity and surface flatness. More importantly, it can accommodate smaller size chips, which is a crucial technical prerequisite for future Micro LED products.

At the time of COB display market explosion, helping COB displays get rid of the high-cost label and improving quality while reducing costs is what the market and users truly need.

When discussing the future cost reduction path of COB products, industry experts believe that:

On one hand, companies will continue to upgrade their technology, optimize product design, streamline processes, and reduce manufacturing costs.

On the other hand, efforts from upstream industry suppliers will help decrease the cost of raw materials.

Thirdly, continuous capacity release will lead to economies of scale. It is expected that the cost reduction rate could reach 10%-20% per year.

EXCEL LED predicts that with more LED display manufacturers joining the COB camp, along with the maturity of technology and the decrease in costs, the COB display market is expected to reach nearly $400 million in 2023, and its market proportion will be over 15% .