SPEA’s flying probe technology is at the forefront in testing futuristic healthcare wearables by Empatica

Empatica, a digital healthcare company developing AI systems to monitor human health through wearable sensors, has selected SPEA’s flying probe technology to test its latest-generation health smartwatch.

The company has just released its EmbracePlus, the most versatile device in the world for physiological data collection. It includes multiple sensors and is used to remotely collect and monitor a broad range of physiological data and health conditions, from vital signs and sleep patterns to respiratory infections (including early and pre-symptomatic detection of COVID-19).

It’s no surprise that quality is an absolute must for Empatica: Given the fact that EmbracePlus is a high-impact, high-accuracy medical device, they wanted to be sure that all units they produced were fully tested, to consistently ensure health monitoring and data collection of the highest quality.
Testing means that you have to physically touch the board on multiple points, but given the density of the components, a standard testing machine would not have sufficed: To ensure that every EmbracePlus is defect-free and able to work correctly for its entire lifespan, Empatica has chosen SPEA 4085 flying prober for the electronic production testing.

SPEA Flying Probe tests an Empatica Device - SPEA

“SPEA was selected as the best global supplier of testing equipment” states Simone Tognetti, CTO at Empatica. “After scouting different technologies, we considered SPEA to be the most trustable and reliable technology to test EmbracePlus, especially given the complexity of our product. We also selected SPEA for the time to market: given the fact that the machine is practically off-the-shelf, only software customization was needed to deploy the test equipment. In addition, the machine provides the flexibility that Empatica needs at our current stage, since we can also reuse it for different products”.

The selected machine was SPEA 4085: a compact, yet powerful flying probe tester, able to reliably contact the smallest components on the highly populated, flexible assemblies inside EmbracePlus, accurately performing all the required tests.

SPEA was also appreciated for the highly qualified engineering and support presence: “The support SPEA gave Empatica during the initial phase of the project was exceptional” says Tognetti. “They helped in reducing the test time and ensuring it met our requirements. We are confident that this kind of support will continue throughout our partnership, and we look forward to continuing our work with SPEA as we continue to scale up the production of EmbracePlus”.

About SPEA

Since 1976, SPEA designs and manufactures the best automatic test equipment for Semiconductor ICs, MEMS, Electronic boards and modules. With SPEA test systems, semiconductor and electronics manufacturers can ensure, day by day, the quality and reliability of their products.

These achievements were made possible by massive R&D investments – up to 20% of total revenue. In strict cooperation with the most important hi-tech firms worldwide, SPEA R&D team conceives and prototypes the machines for the final production test, when the product to be tested is still on paper. This ability represents a valuable advantage for electronics manufacturers, that can speed up their time to market in a tough competitive environment.

During its over 45 years of activity, the company has continuously grown: SPEA currently employs 900 people worldwide (over 750 at the Headquarters in Volpiano, Turin, Italy), while yearly order book records over 180M€.

About Empatica

Empatica, a digital healthcare company headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in Milan, Italy, and Seoul, South Korea, is a pioneer in digital biomarker development and continuous patient monitoring driven by AI. Empatica makes medical-grade smartwatches, software, and digital biomarkers that can accurately monitor human health remotely, continuously, and unobtrusively, across a range of health conditions. Its award-winning Embrace watch is the world’s smallest and most accurate wearable sensor suite for research, and is also the world’s first FDA-cleared smart watch in neurology, for its ability to detect epileptic seizures.

Empatica also makes and sells the CE-certified E4 wristband, which is the industry-standard wearable in academic research, and has been used in over 1000 published academic studies. Its newest wearable, EmbracePlus, is also CE marked, and has been developed with key partners including HHS, USAMRDC, and the NASA-funded Translational Research Institute for Space Health.

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