A tale of two die: LED configurations

A tale of two die: LED configurations

There are two standard configurations of an LED—emitters and COBs. 

An emitter is a single die mounted to a substrate.  The emitter is mounted to a circuit board, which is then mounted to a heat sink.  This circuit board provides electrical power to the emitter, while also drawing away heat.   

To help reduce cost and increase light uniformity, researchers discovered that the substrate of the LED can be removed and the die can be mounted directly to the circuit board. This configuration is known as a chip-on-board array, or COB.