Singular photonics launches SPAD sensor
Edinburgh-based Singular Photonics has launched a configurable SPAD image sensor combining photon counting, timing and histogramming with on-chip processing.
Singular Photonics has announced the launch of Litavis, a CMOS single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor designed to combine imaging, photon timing and signal processing on a single chip.
The company claims Litavis is the first SPAD sensor to simultaneously support intensity, timing and histogramming modes, with its software-configurable architecture allowing developers to adapt sensing parameters without requiring new hardware designs.
By processing photon events directly on-chip, the sensor reduces the volume of raw data that needs to be transferred to external processing hardware. Singular Photonics said this can reduce latency and power consumption while enabling more scalable real-time imaging systems.
Litavis supports multiple time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) and high-throughput time-to-digital converter configurations, alongside high-dynamic-range photon counting, windowed and coincidence-based detection, and combined timestamping and imaging modes.
The sensor provides continuous 256 × 256-pixel photon-counting imaging under low-light conditions. In parallel, timestamped photon events can be generated on a 64 × 64 macropixel grid, providing picosecond-resolution photon timing alongside full-resolution photon counting.
The device also supports multi-event timing, allowing multiple detected photons per excitation cycle to be individually time-binned, as well as in-pixel histogramming. These capabilities are intended for applications including fluorescence lifetime imaging, dynamic light scattering and quantum sensing.
Singular Photonics said the configurable architecture allows the same hardware platform to be adapted across applications including machine vision, robotics, depth sensing, spectroscopy, scientific and medical imaging, quantum technologies and industrial automation.
Litavis will be demonstrated at SPIE Sensors + Imaging in Edinburgh and at VISION in Stuttgart in October.
Singular Photonics is a fabless semiconductor company spun out of the University of Edinburgh and develops SPAD image sensors with integrated computation for imaging and sensing applications.
