Samsung Develops New DDI Package to Improve Heat Dissipation in LCD TVs 

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. claims it has developed the industrys first thermally enhanced chip-on-film (TECOF) package for the display driver IC (DDI) used in large-screen, high-resolution liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs, improving thermal heat dissipation by 20 % over a conventional COF package, allowing the DDI to last longer and operate with greater reliability.

Demand for LCD TVs is surging with increased accessibility to digital broadcasting, while at the same time, rapidly improving LCD TV performance has sparked explosive demand for full-high-definition models with a screen size of 40 in. or larger, Samsung said in a press release.

A typical DDI requires at least 15V to drive these larger, higher-resolution LCD TV panels that operate on broader frequency spectrums to reproduce high-speed video images. As a result, the DDI generates greater heat, which can create reliability problems. But Samsung has developed a new material for the thin metal tape component that has the optimal properties for effectively maximizing heat dissipation. The company has also developed a new automated process for attaching the metal tape to the COF package. By applying Samsungs new TECOF package, the thermal emissions from the DDI are quickly released via the metal tape, minimizing heat build-up.

In addition, heat build-up limits the number of channels a single DDI chip can cover, creating an obstacle to reducing the total number of DDI per panel. With the new TECOF package, the number of source DDIs for a full-HD LCD TV is reduced from 14, 313 channel-DDIs to 8, 720 channel-DDIs, Samsung said.