Singular Photonics' Litavis is the first SPAD sensor that thinks inside the pixel
An Edinburgh startup has beaten Sony and Samsung to a milestone: Singular Photonics launched Litavis on September 10, 2026, billing it as the world's first SPAD sensor to handle imaging, timing, histogramming, and photon statistics all inside the pixel itself. The company is already reporting significant pre-order volumes from research institutions and commercial partners around the world. For anyone building machine vision systems or scientific instruments, that's a meaningful shift in how sensors work.
The pixel as processor
Most image sensors work like couriers — they collect raw photon data and ship enormous streams of it to an external processor. Litavis does the heavy lifting on the chip itself. It combines a 256×256-pixel photon-counting array with a 64×64 macropixel timing grid capable of 37-picosecond resolution, and 47% photon-detection efficiency at 785nm. The architecture is software-configurable, so the same device can switch between time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC), high-dynamic-range counting, coincidence detection, and multi-event timing — no hardware redesign needed.
SPAD technology (single-photon avalanche diode) can register individual photons, making it critical in low-light environments or any application where the precise arrival time of light matters at the picosecond scale. By processing events on-pixel rather than offloading raw streams, Litavis reduces data throughput, latency, and power draw in one go.
Not for your phone — yet
Don't expect Litavis in a smartphone camera anytime soon. According to the Singular Photonics press release, the sensor targets machine vision, robotics, medical spectroscopy, fluorescence lifetime imaging, and quantum sensing — firmly B2B and scientific territory. That said, the SPAD Image Sensor Market Report 2033 puts North America at 38% of the global SPAD market, driven by automotive, consumer 3D recognition, and defense, so the commercial pull is real.
Singular Photonics spun out of the University of Edinburgh's Prof. Robert Henderson lab, one of the leading SPAD research groups in the world. The company operates a fabless model — designing the chip without owning a fab — which keeps it agile but puts it outside the direct scope of semiconductor manufacturing incentives.
Where to see it
Litavis is currently in a pre-order phase; no commercial pricing or shipping date has been announced. Live demonstrations are scheduled at SPIE Sensors + Imaging in Edinburgh (September 2026) and VISION in Stuttgart (October 2026). For labs and system integrators in the market for a next-generation photon-counting sensor, those events are the earliest hands-on access points.