LCD Driver IC Assembly Technologies & Status

According the difference of flex substrate, (reel tape), there are three kind assembly types of LCD driver IC is COG, TCP and COF, respectively. The TCP is the maturest in these types for stability of raw material supply and other specification. And TCP is the major assembly type of LCD driver IC and the huge demand from Taiwan's large TFT LCD panel house since this spring. But due to its package structure and the raw material applied in this package, there is some limitation in fine pitch application of this package type, (TCP). So, COF will be very potential in compact and portable application comparison with TCP in the future. There are three kinds assembly methods in COF, one is ACF by using the anisotropic conductive film to connect the copper lead of tape and gold bump of IC, another is eutectic bonding by using the thermo-pressure to joint the copper lead of tape and gold bump of IC, and last is NCP by using non-conductive paste to adhere the copper lead of tape and gold bump of IC. To have a global realization, this paper will briefly review the status of Taiwan's large TFT panel house, the internal driver IC design house, and the back-end assembly house in the beginning. The different material property of raw material, PI tape is also compared in the paper. The more detail of three kinds of COF assembly method will be described and compared in this paper.