Singular Photonics and Renishaw advance raman spectroscopy
Singular Photonics has reached a major milestone in its collaboration with Renishaw, as the metrology and analytical instrumentation company launches Time-Resolved Raman Spectroscopy (TRRS) for its inVia™ confocal Raman microscope. The new capability is enabled by Singular’s Sirona single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor, bringing time-resolved detection to a commercial Raman platform.
At the heart of the TRRS module is the Sirona SPAD-based line sensor, which allows users to temporally separate weak Raman signals from strong fluorescence backgrounds.
This has long been a key limitation in Raman spectroscopy, particularly when analysing highly fluorescent samples such as pigmented materials. By combining time resolution with high sensitivity, the system enables high-quality Raman measurements from samples that were previously difficult or impossible to characterise. Sirona is built on advanced CMOS SPAD architecture and integrates on-chip time-resolved processing and histogramming across a 512-pixel line sensor.
This design allows simultaneous acquisition of fluorescence and Raman signals with high temporal precision, demonstrating how integrated photonic detection technologies can unlock new measurement modalities in spectroscopy.
According to the companies, the collaboration reflects a deep, long-term technical partnership, with co-development dating back to Singular Photonics’ early origins. The integration of SPAD technology into Renishaw’s Raman systems highlights the growing role of chip-scale, time-resolved photonic sensors in advanced scientific and industrial instrumentation.
