EMS@C-LEVEL
As Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company and SCOOP writer, Philip Stoten, continues to talk to EMS (Electronic Manufacturing Services) executives he learns more about their individual and collective experiences and their expectations for their own businesses and for the entire electronic manufacturing industry.
EMS@C-LEVEL
How Automation And Flying Probe Are Redrawing ICT Strategy with Seica's Luca Corli
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The test floor is changing fast: components shrink, panels grow, and product lifecycles sprint. From the buzz of Productronica 2025, I sit down with Seica's Luca Corli to unpack what that means for real factories and real constraints. The conversation zeroes in on modern in-circuit testing, automation, and why secure, integrated workflows now matter as much as raw pin counts.
We explore the new Valid SL, an inline ICT platform built for large, thick boards and multi-up panels that are increasingly common across semiconductors and high-reliability assemblies. With a redesigned mechanical press for stable contact, support for 4,000+ pins, and attention to cybersecurity in connected environments, Valid SL targets throughput without sacrificing trust. We also dig into Valid LR, a practical path for reusing legacy bed-of-nails fixtures from multiple vendors—key for teams that want better diagnostics and software while protecting tooling investments.
The debate every engineering leader faces comes into focus: when does flying probe beat bed-of-nails, and when is it the other way around? Luca outlines where flying probe shines—rapid product changes, short runs, and tight time-to-market—and where high-pin-count, heavy, or large-format boards still make ICT the clear winner. The real gains appear when these methods are integrated with boundary scan, in-system programming, and functional testing to deliver deeper coverage and shorter cycles in one coordinated flow.
We close with a candid look at market momentum. Automotive softness in parts of Europe contrasts with strong growth in India, where the shift from two and three wheels to cars drives electronics demand, and Southeast Asia continues to accelerate as manufacturing relocates. Through all of it, Seika’s customer-led approach anchors the roadmap: more flexibility where change is constant, more capacity where scale dominates, and more security wherever data and firmware touch the line.
Enjoy the conversation, then tell us how your team balances flexibility and throughput. If this helped you think differently about test strategy, follow, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review—your feedback helps others discover the show.
EMS@C-Level is hosted by global inspection leaders Koh Young (https://www.kohyoung.com) and Global Electronics Association (https://www.electronics.org)
You can see video versions of all of the EMS@C-Level pods on our YouTube playlist.
Live From Productronica 2025
SPEAKER_00Hello, I'm Philip Stought. I'm at the Global Electronics Association booth at Productronica 2025, and I'm joined by Luca from Seika. Luca, great to talk to you again. We speak every couple of years, every year if we can, when we're in Munich. Yes. Always new products, always new and exciting things coming from you guys. What have you got here this year?
SPEAKER_01This year, first of all, uh we have uh a nice uh uh unique booth uh where we show test solutions and automation.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, because automation was the new thing like that.
Introducing The Valid SL ICT
Testing Larger Panels And Boards
SPEAKER_01Uh they have uh one nice large uh area where we can show the integration between testers and automation. Okay, and uh we do have a new product which is called uh valid SL. It's an in-circuit tester, fully automated, so it's an inline tester. Let's say with a modern design, taking uh all the new rules coming from cybersecurity side, for example. Uh also some different concept uh in the design of the mechanical press that is helping to make the contact between the board and uh and fixture. Uh, a large uh number of channels, the machine goes over 4,000 uh pin counts. Wow. And uh we're looking to increase the size of the boards we can test because it's funny, everybody's thinking about uh downsizing uh, you know, yeah, the size of the board. Components are getting smaller, but but boards are getting bigger in some environments or panels, yeah. So uh we realized that there was a demand on the market to test big panels of small boards, yeah, and that's why the valid SL is meeting the new requirements of uh of this kind of customers, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And the kind of customers that want that are they in specific markets in the semicon market, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh in the semicon market, there is a need to test uh large and thick uh boards, yeah. And basically, these are the boards used to test the devices.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
Valid LR And Legacy Fixture Reuse
Flying Probe Versus Bed Of Nails
SPEAKER_01As everybody knows, uh, automotive is not uh at its best uh in this moment. Yeah, so the flexibility of Seika is to respond to the market that is up uh in this moment. Yeah, so uh this was a specific need that we identify in the last couple of years. Yeah, and uh we have released this machine that goes uh in a line called Valid, where uh a year ago, we were not in Munich together, but a year ago we have introduced another machine which is a manual tester, still ICT. It's called Valid LR, where LR means legacy replacement. Okay, it's a machine able to work with different kinds of fixtures, yeah. Uh fixtures coming from different vendors. Oh, okay. So why we did that? Because some of our customers they want to reuse existing bed-of-nails fixtures, build for other standards, yeah, and eventually use them on a new tester, a new Seca machine. Yeah, so there is a Seca receiver, but there are at least another four different types of receivers for fixtures that can be fitted in the machine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, what I like about the way you operate, not just with Seika, but with Seca automation as well, it's all voice of customer, it's all customer-led. You know, you're you're constantly talking to your customers, you're understanding what they need, and you're you're developing products. What are they asking you for that's perhaps impacting the next the next period of development for you? What's the next challenge?
Higher Coverage And Integrated Methods
SPEAKER_01The next challenge uh is uh on one side is to make the flying probers more and more able to replace uh the bed of nails, yeah, which seems to be you know a contrast with what I just said because we're developing uh ICT. But in fact, uh both uh they have uh uh an application on the market. Some customers they want to stay away from bed of nails fixtures because they have a type of market where products are changing so quickly and so fast. Okay, so these customers they definitely need a flying rover to get more and more flexibility and a time to market for the product much lower. Yeah, but there are other applications where you can't skip the bed of nails because of the size of the product, because of the weight of the product, because of the large number of pin counts that you need. In that case, the ICT should go in a direction where you are able to test more test points, more devices, more components, of course, in a fast way. Yeah, integrating everything with uh flashing, yeah, with boundary scan, yeah, with functional test, something that we normally do since years in the same probe, and we want to empower also on the bed of nails.
Regional Outlook: India And SEA
SPEAKER_00On the bed of nails, yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned earlier that uh the automotive industry is down, that impacts Germany perhaps more than anybody else. You're covering the whole of Europe, you're dealing with lots of different regions, lots of different end markets. Which which countries are doing better than others? India. India?
SPEAKER_01Definitely India, you know, exciting market for you at the moment? For auto, I mean for automotive India, it's still uh a good market. Because in fact, uh the country is moving from two, three wheels to the four wheels. Yeah, of course, it's gonna take time because of the volumes, uh, the number of people rising in the world. But in India, we definitely have a good business thanks to a partner that works with Seika since many years. Uh-huh. Uh so we're for when we talk about automotive this year and hopefully also next year. I hope many other countries will bring a more automotive business, but India is definitely driving that demand. While for other applications, the Southeast Asia is a very interesting market now for us.
Closing Thanks From The Floor
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. It's stuff that's moved out of China into Southeast Asia seems to be driving some investor. Luca, always a pleasure to chat and get an insight on what's going on in the test and automation market and what's going on elsewhere in the world. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you.