Since T.A. Edison of the United States invented the carbonized fiber incandescent lamp in 1879, incandescent lamps have been with us for over a century and are still the mainstay of lighting in some regions. Why have incandescent lamps been able to endure for so long? The decisive factor is their low price. The reason why LEDs have not yet fully entered the hands of ordinary consumers is that their price is still unaffordable for many people.

Focusing on how to reduce the price of LEDs and cut production costs, various LED companies are pulling out all the stops. Technical solutions centered around "no packaging, no heat dissipation, and no power supply" will become the "three pillars" leading the future development trend of the industry, and will also become the focus of future competition among chip packaging and lighting application companies.

No encapsulation is also a form of encapsulation

Due to the significant cost reduction potential of unpackaged technology, multiple Taiwanese and international companies, both domestic and overseas, are currently engaged in research, development, and production. These include Taiwanese LED chip manufacturers Epistar, Episilicon, and integrated manufacturer TSMC Solid-State Lighting, as well as Ruifeng, international giants OSRAM, CREE, and Philips Lumileds.

Actually, "no-packaging" technology does not eliminate the entire packaging process; it merely omits the gold wire packaging step and remains one of many packaging forms. "No-packaging" technology differs from traditional packaging in that it incorporates some packaging actions based on wafer technology, integrating some packaging steps into chip technology. It represents a good integration of chip technology and packaging technology, and can also be described as chip-scale packaging.

LED without heat dissipation still has a long way to go

LED, as a light-emitting diode, has been around for over a century, evolving from its early application as an indicator light to the field of lighting. LED lights, as a form of illumination, possess numerous advantages such as energy efficiency, high efficacy, and longevity. However, as the power of LEDs increases, so does the amount of heat they generate. If this waste heat cannot be effectively dissipated, it can affect various parameters of the LED chip, including luminous efficiency and lifespan.

The high temperature and heat generation of LEDs are the direct causes of light decay and shortened lifespan in lighting fixtures, as well as the root cause of instability in LED chips and related electronic components, becoming a major bottleneck in industry development. However, to effectively address the heat dissipation issue of lighting fixtures, the production cost of LEDs will inevitably increase significantly.

Currently, the light-to-heat conversion efficiency of LEDs is around 30%. In the future, when LED chips and packaging processes have been significantly improved, and all electrical energy can be converted into light energy, it will be the era of true heat-free operation!

No power supply, LED's true revolution

LED lighting fixtures are known for their energy efficiency, intelligence, and long lifespan, but these attributes are essentially reliant on good driver power supplies. There was once a joke in the industry that "if 100 LED fixtures fail, 99 of them are due to issues with the driver power supply." This underscores the importance of LED driver power supplies, which also makes them occupy a significant position in the overall LED production cost.

LED lighting fixtures are expected to experience price reductions, and there is considerable potential for innovation in the driver power supply. The concept of "eliminating the power supply" has been widely discussed in recent years, with some even hailing it as a revolutionary change for LEDs.

Currently, the main design approaches for de-electrification are AC-LED and HV-LED. AC-LED, whose rectifier bridge is also designed using LEDs, has the advantage of being able to be designed very small in size, as the rectifier bridge is also part of the light-emitting component. The maturing production technology of AC-LED light sources, a new generation of special topology structure that can be directly driven by alternating current (AC) to emit light, will usher in another new era of LED lighting technology.