A new single-photon image sensor combines photon counting, timing, histogramming, and temporal analysis on one programmable CMOS platform for advanced imaging systems.
Singular Photonics has introduced Litavis, a CMOS single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) image sensor designed to combine intensity imaging, photon timing, histogramming and photon-statistics processing on a single chip. Its programmable architecture allows developers to configure sensing modes in software, reducing the need for application-specific hardware redesigns.
The sensor provides 256 × 256-pixel continuous photon-counting imaging for low-light scenes while simultaneously generating time-stamped photon events on a 64 × 64 macropixel grid. This combination enables full-resolution intensity information alongside picosecond-resolution temporal measurements, allowing imaging systems to capture both spatial and time-domain information.
A key feature of Litavis is its integrated digital processing architecture, which handles photon events directly within the pixel array. By extracting information on-chip, the sensor can reduce the volume of raw data transferred to external processors, potentially lowering system latency and power requirements while enabling faster real-time analysis.
Litavis supports multiple configurable acquisition modes, including TCSPC (time-correlated single-photon counting) and high-throughput time-to-digital converter configurations using internal or external clocks. Its multi-event timing capability can individually time-bin multiple detected photons within an excitation cycle, while in-pixel histogramming enables analysis of photon arrival distributions.
The key features are:
- 256 × 256-pixel photon-counting array
- 64 × 64 macropixel timing architecture
- In-pixel digital photon processing
- Simultaneous intensity, timing and histogram operation
- Software-configurable sensing architecture
The sensor also provides windowed and coincidence-based detection modes, along with combined timestamping and imaging operation. These capabilities allow the same hardware to be adapted for different measurement requirements through software configuration.
The programmable multimodal approach makes Litavis suitable for applications including machine vision, robotics, physical AI, depth sensing, spectroscopy, scientific and medical imaging, quantum technologies, and industrial automation. Its temporal measurement capabilities can also support specialized applications such as fluorescence lifetime imaging and dynamic light scattering.
For system developers, the adaptable architecture is intended to simplify prototyping and shorten development cycles by providing multiple sensing functions within one scalable SPAD platform. Rather than requiring separate sensor architectures for intensity, timing or statistical measurements, Litavis provides these capabilities through a configurable device. The sensor will be demonstrated at SPIE Sensors + Imaging in Edinburgh and VISION in Stuttgart, giving imaging-system developers an opportunity to evaluate its multimodal sensing capabilities.
