Singular Photonics has launched Litavis, a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor the Edinburgh-based company calls the first to unify imaging, timing, histogramming and photon statistics processing on a single chip, in-pixel. Singular Photonics says the sensor brings "unprecedented flexibility and intelligence" to imaging through a software-configurable architecture that switches between photon-counting imaging, programmable time gating and photon timing modes without redesigning hardware.
Litavis captures continuous 256 x 256-pixel photon-counting images in low light while simultaneously generating time-stamped photon events on a 64 x 64 macropixel grid at picosecond resolution. The chip also bins multiple photons per excitation cycle individually, a mode Singular Photonics calls multi-event timing, and performs histogramming in-pixel. That combination gives developers access to depth, timing and event data that standard intensity-only sensors do not capture.
For engineers building inline inspection or machine-vision systems, the on-chip processing matters as much as the sensitivity. Pushing photon counting, timing and histogramming into the pixel array cuts the raw data that has to move off-chip, which lowers latency and power draw in real-time detection setups. Singular Photonics says the same hardware can be reconfigured in software across applications such as depth sensing, spectroscopy, quantum sensing and industrial automation, rather than requiring a new sensor design for each one.
"Litavis combines the sensitivity advantages of SPAD technology with the adaptability and scalability increasingly required by modern multimodal imaging," said Shahida Imani, CEO of Singular Photonics. Imani said the company has "already received significant pre-order volumes from companies and institutions around the world" for the sensor, though Singular Photonics did not disclose pricing or shipping dates. Litavis follows the company's Andarta and Sirona sensor families, which Singular Photonics, a spin-out from the University of Edinburgh, says are already commercially available and generating revenue.
Singular Photonics will demonstrate Litavis at SPIE Sensors + Imaging in Edinburgh this week, then at the VISION machine vision trade show in Stuttgart in October. Those two events mark the sensor's first public showings outside company demos, ahead of any broader commercial rollout.
