The Shrinking World Of COB LED Tape Light

It was roughly 12 or 13 years ago that the first COB LED tape lights hit the market. I remember a client making me aware of the new tape light that eliminated pixilation, which was the primary benefit of COB tape light.

Today, there are a dizzying array (pun intended) of COB tape lights available. This includes a wide variety of CCTs and colors. I’ve seen 2mm COB tapes available in four CCTs and 8 colors. There are also IC RGB COB tape lights that enable addressable, color-changing pixels down the entire length of the tape light, for dynamic multi-color effects, such as multi-color chasing.

Most COB LED tape lights are 12VDC or 24VDC, but other voltages can also be found, such as 5VDC and even 3VDC. One of the quality metrics for tape light is the number of LED chips per meter of COB tape light. The smaller the number of chips per meter, the greater the pixilation becomes. The greater the chips per meter, the less pixilation and potentially higher output the tape light can be. The highest chip density figure I’ve found online, so far, is 800 LEDs/m of tape light. 450 LEDs/m seems the most common figure that I’ve come across.

Perhaps most surprising to me has been the rapid miniaturization that’s occurred in just the last couple years. The original COB LED tape lights had a light emitting surface that was roughly 6mm wide, that rested on top of a flexible PCB board that was typically 10-12mm wide. Today you can find COB tapes available in 8mm, 5mm, 4mm, 3mm, and even 2mm widths. The ultra narrow versions also have no PCB on either side of the light emitting surface. See images immediately above and below. The ultra narrow COB tapes enable smaller aluminum extrusions, as well as placement in smaller and smaller cavities within woodwork and other architectural surfaces. It’s hard to imagine how much smaller these COB tape lights can get without becoming impossibly fragile. Expect to see more varieties of COB tape lights in the market. A spec grade example is here.

Image above: 2mm-wide COB LED tape light is readily available from Chinese factories.

Image: 3mm, 5mm, and 8mm wide COB LED tape lights.

Image: IC RGB COB tape light enables multi-color chasing and other dynamic color effects.

Image: 2mm COB LED tape light.

David Shiller

David Shiller is the Publisher of LightNOW, and President of Lighting Solution Development, a North American consulting firm providing business development services to advanced lighting manufacturers. The ALA awarded David the Pillar of the Industry Award. David has co-chaired ALA’s Engineering Committee since 2010. David established MaxLite’s OEM component sales into a multi-million dollar division. He invented GU24 lamps while leading ENERGY STAR lighting programs for the US EPA. David has been published in leading lighting publications, including LD+A, enLIGHTenment Magazine, LEDs Magazine, and more.

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