New Litavis sensor opens up new possibilities for robotics, medical imaging, scientific research and other advanced imaging applications.
Edinburgh, UK – September 10, 2026 – Edinburgh fabless semiconductor company Singular Photonics today launched Litavis, a new type of image sensor designed to capture and process far more information about light than conventional sensors.
Litavis is the world’s first single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) sensor to combine several advanced imaging and measurement capabilities with processing inside individual pixels on a single chip.
SPAD sensors are able to detect individual photons – the smallest units of light – making them extremely sensitive and allowing them to capture information that conventional image sensors cannot easily see.
But rather than simply detecting photons and sending large amounts of raw data elsewhere for processing, Litavis can analyse important information directly within the sensor itself.
This means imaging systems can respond more quickly, transfer less data and potentially use less power. It also allows the same sensor to be configured through software for different types of imaging, rather than requiring developers to create new hardware for every application.
Litavis can simultaneously capture conventional image information while also measuring precisely when individual photons arrive. This allows imaging systems to understand not only how much light is present, but also when it arrived and how it is changing over time.
These capabilities could be valuable across fields including robotics, machine vision, industrial automation, depth sensing, medical imaging, scientific research, spectroscopy and quantum technologies.
“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. “It condenses these into one intelligent sensor, enabling a new generation of imaging systems built on a single, configurable platform. We designed Litavis to serve multiple applications and markets, and we’ve already received significant pre-order volumes from companies and institutions around the world.”
For product developers, one of Litavis’s key advantages is flexibility. Its operating characteristics can be changed through software, allowing developers to experiment with different imaging approaches and adapt the sensor to new applications without redesigning the underlying hardware.
The sensor can also carry out some of the processing that would traditionally require separate electronics or computing hardware. By moving this work closer to where light is first detected, Singular Photonics believes Litavis can help make advanced imaging systems faster, more efficient and easier to develop.
As with Singular’s other products, Litavis is named after an ancient Celtic deity, an earth goddess, whose name means “the broad one” – reflecting the extensive capabilities of the new sensor.
Litavis will be demonstrated at SPIE Sensors + Imaging in Edinburgh next week, and at VISION, the world’s largest machine vision tradeshow in Stuttgart in October.