by | Aug 12, 2023 | Technology | 12 comments

TrendForce research data shows that the LED small-pitch display screen market will reach US$4.232 billion in 2022, a growth of 12% compared with the same period of time. In addition, against the backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and inflation, the overall demand for LED displays shrank last year, and display manufacturers have been more active in promoting ≤P1.0 mini/micro led screen.

MIP LED DISPLAY

History of LED display package technology:

The development of LED screen package technology from DIP to SMD to IMD to COB is a process of innovation and improvement in response to market demand and technological progress.

  • DIP stands for Dual In-line Package. It is the oldest and simplest packaging method, which involves inserting two pins of each LED chip into a plastic holder and soldering them to the PCB board. DIP packaging has the advantages of high brightness, good heat dissipation, and low cost, but it also has the disadvantages of large size, low resolution, and poor color uniformity. DIP packaging is mainly used for outdoor displays with large pixel pitches.
  • SMD stands for Surface Mounted Device. It is the most widely used packaging method in the current LED display industry, which involves fixing the LED chips on a bracket, connecting them with gold wires, and protecting them with epoxy resin. The SMD package can integrate red, green, and blue LED chips into one lamp bead, which can be soldered to the PCB board by reflow soldering. SMD packaging has the advantages of small size, large viewing angle, good color mixing, and high reliability, but it also has the disadvantages of low brightness, poor heat dissipation, and high cost. SMD packaging is mainly used for indoor displays with small pixel pitches.
  • IMD stands for Integrated Matrix Device. It is a relatively new packaging method that combines the advantages of SMD and COB. It uses surface mount technology to fix the LED chips on a metal substrate and then covers them with a transparent resin film. The IMD package can achieve a smaller pixel pitch than SMD and also has better protection, heat dissipation, and contrast than SMD. However, IMD packaging still faces some challenges such as high cost, complex processes, and low yield.
  • COB stands for Chip on Board. It is another emerging packaging method that directly mounts the LED chips on the PCB board and then encapsulates them with epoxy resin or silicone gel. The COB package can achieve a very small pixel pitch, even reaching the level of mini LED and micro LED. It also has excellent protection, heat dissipation, contrast, and reliability. However, COB packaging also has some drawbacks such as high cost, difficult repair, and color inconsistency
micro led display development histry

What is Mip LED Display

Mip Stands for “Micro LED in Package”, it is a new packaging technology based on Micro LED, which can be diced into small pieces package from a micro/mini led panel, and then perform separate packaging and testing, and becomes a Mip Modules via SMT ,thereby improving the yield and reducing the cost.

mip led screen production process
MIP PCB BOARD MICRO LED
MIP LED SMT PROCESS
MIP HOB PROCESS

COB’ Challenges 

COB LED display can achieve a very small pixel pitch, even reaching the level of mini LED and micro LED. It also has excellent protection, heat dissipation, contrast, and reliability. However, COB LED display also faces some challenges

Maintenance

Difficult to repair a single lamp For COB lamps, single-lamp maintenance is relatively challenging. One of the biggest problems is that when repairing a lamp, the surrounding area will be affected by the welding torch, and a ring will appear around the lamp.

Color consistency

LED displays with COB are prone to modular color differences. When the scale of COB production is not large enough, the cost of chip and color binning is high, and the finished display screen needs to be calibrated to improve the display consistency.

High Manufacturing Cost

COB packaging works on a large board that has up to 1024 led chips. which means all led chips must be properly bonded on the board, This brings a big challenge to the Mass transfer device and craftsmanship, ” Compared with SMD, if one single lamp is broken during SMD packing, it only needs to replace one lamp,

However, after the packaging of 1024 lamps in the COB package is completed, a test must be carried out, and the glue can only be sealed after all the lamps are confirmed to have no problems. How to ensure that all the 1024 lamps on the whole board are intact, the one-time pass rate is a very big challenge.

Finished product pass rate is a challenge For COB module production, after the chips are sealed, the IC drive device must undergo a reflow soldering process. How to ensure that the lamp surface will not be damaged by the high temperature of 240 degrees in the furnace during the reflow soldering process is another big challenge.

Visionpi’s patented mass transfer technique is a novel approach for transferring millions of micro LED chips accurately. With the mass transfer technology, the UPH of micro & mini LED displays is more than 2.5KK, and the mass production yield rate is more than 99.999%.

sony samsung cob vs mip

Cost of Mip 

In the printing and mounting process of COB, the higher pixel density of micro led and smaller soldering pin of the Mini LED chip bring big challenges to the SMT stencil and die-bonding equipment.

MIP technology can avoid the problem of poor quality of the whole panel due to a few led chip’ failures, and greatly reduce the cost of rework. In addition, MIP is compatible with traditional SMT production equipment and mature SMD technology and lowers the cost of transfer.

mini led display
cob vs mip
mip led screen mini led wall

PROTECTION cob png

COB VS Mip

 Stability: COB packaged LED displays have higher quality because they do not use brackets, but use silicone or conductive glue to directly paste the chips on the substrate, and then perform wire bonding to achieve electrical connection. MIP packaging is to interconnect the chip electrodes and the substrate electrodes through an interconnect bracket after the LED chip electrodes are made.

Manufacturing Cost:   the P1.2 Mip led screen is comparable in cost to the COB 1.2 led screen. when the dot pitch is less than P1.2, and the comprehensive manufacturing cost of MIP technology is lower than COB technology and SMD technology.

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