Since the launch of the 1st-gen Apple Watch, Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has often positioned the product as an all-around healthcare wearable device, which can be best proved by features including the earlier electrocardiography and blood oxygen measurement unveiled last year.

With excellent know-how and product yield, the leading sensing component manufacturer Opto Tech hold 90% of Apple Watch’s sensor orders, thereby playing a crucial role in Cook’s healthcare wearable agenda.

Insiders reveal that most wearable devices measure users’ heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure, glucose, and body hydration using optical approaches, whereby the measurement accuracy can be enhanced. Opto Tech—with outstanding R&D capacity and abundant manufacturing experience—offers high-accuracy sensors to Apple, allowing the company to achieve blood oxygen measurement in its Apple Watch series.

Image source: PAIXIN.COM

The blood oxygen sensor in Apple Watch Series 6 comprises green, red, and infrared LED clusters and four pairs of photodiodes, which is attached to the watch’s crystal back. Specifically, LED light is emitted on users’ blood vessels at the wrist, after which photodiodes measure the amount of light reflected back. The sensor then use algorithms to compute the blood color and determine users’ blood oxygen level.

Opto Tech provides Apple both photodiodes and LEDs, which are major components of Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensors. Further, Opto Tech’s sensors have higher accuracy and yield than competitors. Therefore, Apple decided to place 90% of its sensor orders with Opto Tech, with only 10% of orders left for secondary suppliers, demonstrating Cook’s trust in and reliance on the Taiwan-based sensing component manufacturer. (Source: Economic Daily News)