What Is COB LED?
With so many new innovations in the world of lighting, it can sometimes be hard to keep track of what everything means. For instance, there are so many types of LED light to keep straight, from COB LEDs to SMD to DIPS. It can be somewhat overwhelming to stay on top of, especially if you’re trying to purchase the best quality LED products you can find.
Not to worry. In this guide, we’ll explain what COB LEDs are, how they compare to older styles of LED, and when you might opt for a COB light over other kinds of lighting.
1. What are LEDs?
LEDs – or light emitting diodes – are a kind of lighting technology designed to supplant the previously used incandescent lighting. Unlike incandescent lighting, which produces light by heating a filament until it glows, LED lights produce light with very little heat and very little wasted energy.
LEDs work through the movement of electricity across a diode. Voltage increases the energy in an electron. Then, as the electron moves across the diode, it falls into these “pockets” of lower energy, causing a drop in its energy. The electrons release some energy as a result of this drop, and this energy – called a “photon” – is perceived to humans as visible light.
This is a radical change in the way that we have traditionally created light in light bulbs. The most common consumer lighting product for a long time was the incandescent bulb, which generates a nice, warm light, but which also wastes much of the electricity it consumes as heat as a byproduct. LEDs rarely get extremely hot, and they are much more efficient in how they consume energy, with only a small amount of heat as a byproduct.
Even the previously innovative CFL bulb has a hard time competing with LEDs, given the fact that LEDs are even more energy efficient, and they don’t use toxic elements to produce light.
Today, LEDs are found in all manner of places, from residences to automotive lights to appliances and more.
2. What does COB LED mean?
COB LED stands for “chip on-board light emitting diode,” which is just a fancy term for a new kind of LED lighting that you can use in your home, for photography, and much more. COBs are a relatively recent way of building LEDs that allows for superior light quality, intensity, and uniformity.
Unlike their precursors, COB LEDs are constructed in a way that allows for the lighting elements to be small and able to be densely packed together, producing the illusion of a single continuous light source. COB LEDs can pack almost 40 times lighter into the same area compared with SMD LEDs, the other common technology for LED light strips.
For instance, in a 10mm x 10mm area, DIP LEDs can pack 9 LEDs, SMDs can pack 40, and COB LEDs can pack 342 LEDs.
The name “COB” refers to the technology that makes these LEDs different from SMDs and DIPs – the fact that each LED chip can be placed directly in contact with the substrate.
2.1 SMD LEDs
SMD LEDs – which stands for “surface mounted device” – are the typical pick for many LED lighting applications. These are the precursor to COB LEDs, though they are still considered the industry standard. In spite of COB’s superiority in some elements of lighting, SMDs are likely what you’ll find when taking apart LED lamps, lightbulbs, streetlights, automotive lights, horticulture lighting, and LED-backlit devices like televisions, phones, and tablets.
2.2 DIP LEDs
DIP stands for dual inline packaging, and it is an even earlier form of LED packaging, involving larger bullet-shaped bulbs on each chip. While they are robust and inexpensive, they usually produce less light and have poor color blending abilities.
2.3 Are COB LED lights brighter?
Yes, COB LED lights can get much brighter than other types of LED packaging technologies like SMD and DIP. While the brightness of COB LEDs can be adjusted to suit your needs, they have the ability to produce a significant amount of light, making them excellent for specialized lighting applications like photography, film and television studios, and stage lights.
3. What are the benefits of COB LEDs?
COB LEDs offer a number of distinct benefits over other types of LED packaging technology. These benefits include:
3.1 Light intensity and brightness
Due to their high density of chips, COB LEDs can produce more light than other packaging styles. These lights produce at least 80 lumens per watt, often more, making them brighter than most SMD lights.
3.2 Light uniformity
COB LEDs also boast superior light uniformity due to the nature of their coating and the nature of their layout. Instead of chunks of light, you get a smooth, diffused area of light, creating more consistent illuminance on the surfaces its light lands on. This is part of why many choose COB LEDs for light strips in the home or for LED lighting on photography shoots.
3.3 Energy efficiency
You might think that the improved light intensity of COB LEDs means that they use more power, but this is actually not the case – the design of COB lights makes them significantly more energy efficient than their SMD and DIP precursors.
For context, COB lights produce at least 80 lumens per watt of power consumed, potentially producing much, much more. SMD lights start at 50 lumens per watt and typically cap around 100 lumens per watt.
While this energy efficiency difference can be negligible in household settings where you’re not consuming a huge amount of power on lighting alone, this improved efficiency can be a huge benefit for settings where a lot of very powerful lighting is drawing power alongside a lot of other powerful appliances. Television studios, film sets, and live event venues benefit from improved lighting efficiency, saving money and preventing electrical problems down the line.
4. When would you use COB LEDs?
While SMD lighting has gotten a reputation for being the industry standard LED packaging technology, COB lights have specific applications where they may be better suited than SMD lights.
4.1 Photography
Due to their intense brightness and energy efficiency, COB LEDs are a popular choice for lighting in photography set ups. They can produce a lot of lumens of light with a relatively small amount of energy, making them more efficient than some other kinds of studio lighting, especially when running them alongside other COB lights. They can also run for a long time without getting too hot, which can be a huge benefit for studios – you can leave them on and adjusted to the proper levels during small breaks and you won’t have to worry about shutting everything down and losing your setup.
4.2 Studio lighting
For similar reasons, COB LEDs are a popular pick for television and film studio lighting. On television sets, like those set up for multi-camera news shows, COBs can be set up as a part of the permanent lighting tracks, used to light the set, the talent, and add highlights. However, COBs are also fairly portable, which can make them a great choice for film and television sets that take place outside of the studio – you can easily put a COB light on a light pole or other temporary fixture to create the perfect lighting conditions for your shoot.
4.3 Live event lighting
COB LEDs can be a great choice for live event lighting, like concerts, comedy shows, and live theater. With their ultra powerful beams, COB lights have the power to light up the stage and give you full control over the visual design of your show. Additionally, COB lights consume less power than other LED packaging technologies, meaning you can allocate more power to sound and other crucial stage effects.
4.4 Home lighting
Additionally, COB LED lights can be used for lighting your home. You’ll frequently see COB light strips offered as an improvement on SMD light strips. SMD strips frequently have their components visible and spread apart, creating a kind of clunky, non-uniform look. COB LED strips, by contrast, are usually available as one evenly diffused strip of light, creating a very modern look.
While many homeowners opt to hide the appearance of SMD lights, COB LED strips can be used anywhere in your home, from under cabinets, under furniture, or along your wall, ceiling, or floor. COB LED strips can also be used to create creative light art on your bedroom wall!
4.5 Flashlights
COB lighting is a popular feature for high-powered flashlights. Tactical flashlights – flashlights designed to be used for self-defense – often boast that they use COB lighting rather than SMD, due to its reputation for producing ultra intense light for less power.
5. Looking for reliable LED displays?
At LED Sino, we offer several high-quality LED display products and solutions, perfectly suited for clients in a wide range of industries and with a wide range of industry needs. Whether you’re looking for affordable LED display rentals for an upcoming event, or you’re looking to purchase displays for your event center, conference center, auditorium, church, or arena, we can help you get set up with clear, vivid, and reliable LED displays.