COB stands for Chips on Board.
This is a new technology in the packaging of LEDs for lighting purposes. Essentially, many LED chips are integrated together on a single, good thermal conductor substrate without separate encapsulation. When lit, it looks like a continuous light panel without visible individual light points.
The reason for the development of this technology is to ensure that LED light sources with increasingly higher efficiency have a longer lifespan. This is achieved by emitting light over a larger surface area, and since there is no individual encapsulation, the substrate can dissipate heat over a large area and directly. Ensuring a lower operating temperature is the clear key to longer-lasting LED operation.
From a user experience perspective, the advantage of COB LEDs over other LED light sources is that because the light is generated over a larger, continuous area, it is possible to create designs that do not cause glare and yet provide adequate illumination. A traditional LED (DIP LED, SuperFlux, or Power LED, SMD LED) as a point light source can be very glaring. To reduce the glare caused by the strong light point, these LEDs often use optical lenses or etched glass surfaces, which all reduce efficiency. Although for other reasons, such as design, COB LEDs can also use matte finishes, lenses, or etched surfaces, fundamentally, COB LEDs are the least glaring and provide the most uniform illumination among LEDs.