Single Photon Workshop 2026 materials available

Abstracts from the recently concluded SPW2026 in Naples, Italy are now available online:

https://spw2026.org/programme

https://spw2026.org/poster-session-1

https://spw2026.org/poster-session-2 

indie / ams OSRAM deal

Link: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260511959181/en/indie-to-Acquire-CMOS-Image-Sensor-Product-Line-from-ams-OSRAM

indie to Acquire CMOS Image Sensor Product Line from ams OSRAM 

ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--indie Semiconductor (Nasdaq: INDI), an automotive solutions innovator, has announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the fabless CMOS image sensor group from ams OSRAM AG for a total consideration of 40 million euros.

With primary operations in Belgium and Portugal, this product line includes intelligent, high‑performance CMOS image sensors for a broad range of industrial, automation, and physical artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This portfolio of products, IP, and designs aligns with indie’s automotive ADAS sensing solutions and further strengthens the Company’s multimodal sensing capabilities across radar, vision, LiDAR, and ultrasonic.

“By integrating ams’ CMOS imagers with our sensor‑fusion hardware and perception software, we’re able to deliver unparalleled sensing systems for next‑generation autonomous machines, including emerging applications such as humanoid robots, cobots, and AMRs,” said Mark Tyndall, executive vice president of corporate development and investor relations at indie. “This unique carve-out extends our position in sensor‑fusion technology and significantly expands our portfolio of GaN SLED light‑source solutions. Together, these technologies broaden our offerings, opens new customer opportunities, and positions indie to capture a larger share of the rapidly emerging physical AI market.”

Image sensors are a key component of sensor-rich platforms within high-performance visual applications such as humanoids, cobots, and industrial automation. As noted by Research and Markets, the image sensor market is forecasted to grow to over $40 billion by 2030. This market growth is being driven by rising autonomy, safety regulations, and increased adoption of AI-based vision ADAS systems, as well as applications that require multimodal sensing, low-latency, and high-resolution.

The consideration includes a cash payment of 35 million euros paid at closing, and a 5 million euros vendor debt note provided by ams OSRAM. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. It is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026 and be immediately accretive.  

Recent earthquake disrupts Sony's image sensor fab

Yahoo news July 28, 2026 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/sony-fujifilm-plants-evacuate-7-160448320.html

Sony, Fujifilm plants evacuate as 7.1-magnitude earthquake hits Japan's image sensor hub 

Sony press release July 31, 2026
 
https://www.sony-semicon.com/en/info/2026/2026073101.html

Status of Sony Semiconductor Solutions Group Manufacturing Operations Affected by 2026 Kumamoto Earthquakes (Second Update) 

The current status of the impact on our operations from the earthquake that occurred in the Kumamoto region on July 28, 2026, is as follows:

Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation's Kumamoto Technology Center (located in Kikuyo-machi, Kumamoto Prefecture), which temporarily was halted after the earthquake, has completed safety inspections of its buildings and facilities, and has been carrying out recovery work. As a result, the site is scheduled to resume operations in stages beginning August 4, 2026. The Kumamoto Technology Center is expected to return to its pre-earthquake operating level by mid-August 2026.

Further updates will be provided promptly should any new information become available.

Digital Camera World July 31, 2026 

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/an-earthquake-has-halted-production-at-the-worlds-largest-camera-sensor-hub-sony-confirms-could-camera-shipments-be-delayed

The largest image sensor plant from Sony – the world’s biggest manufacturer of image sensors – has halted production after an earthquake hit Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture on July 28. As of July 31, production still has not resumed, Sony said during an earnings report. 

Sony and Samsung 200MP sensors compared

 

 

200MP camera sensors are everywhere on modern smartphones, but are all 200MP cameras the same?

In this video, we explain why smartphone manufacturers keep adopting 200MP sensors, then run blind camera tests featuring Samsung HP3, HP5, HP9 series, Sony LYTIA 901 and SmartSens SCC80XS. We compare official specifications with real-world daylight and low-light lab samples to reveal how sensor hardware, ISP tuning and optical modules affect image quality.

A larger sensor does not always produce better photos. Final imaging performance depends on the entire camera system instead of sensor specs alone. Let’s check the actual gaps between these mainstream 200MP sensors.

Video on CMOS image sensor basics

iDS published a YouTube video on CMOS image sensor basics:

 

This video provides a comprehensive introduction to modern CMOS sensor technology and explains how hardware innovations have transformed image quality, efficiency, and performance. You’ll learn why pixel sizes continue to shrink, how this impacts imaging results, and which techniques manufacturers use to compensate for these limitations.

The presentation covers key advancements such as microlenses, backside illumination, deep trench isolation, wafer stacking, and smart features like event‑based imaging and sensor‑level AI (Artifcial Intelligence). You’ll also gain insights into image pipelines, FPGA (Field  Programmable Gate Array) versus ISP (Internet Service Provider) (Image Signal Processor) processing, and why system‑level design decisions matter for real‑world machine vision applications. This is essential knowledge for anyone evaluating sensor performance or designing imaging systems that require reliability, speed, and high‑quality results.

Topics covered

    Trends driving pixel size reduction and sensor scaling
    Hardware innovations such as BSI, micro lenses, and deep trench isolation
    Improvements in quantum efficiency and dynamic range
    Image pipelines with FPGA, ISP, and host‑based processing
    Smart sensor features including event‑based imaging and AI at the edge
    Cost, yield, and design considerations for modern CMOS sensors

eyeo raises €40M series A

[News from May 2026]

https://eyeo-imaging.com/knowledge/news/eyeo-raises-e40-million-to-fix-the-flaw-that-has-kept-every-camera-70-blind/ 

eyeo raises €40 million to fix the flaw that has kept every camera 70% blind

 Eindhoven (Netherlands), May 11, 2026 – eyeo today announced it has raised €40 million in Series A funding, bringing eyeo’s total funding to €55 million. The round is led by Innovation Industries, with participation from existing investors imec.xpand, Invest-NL Deep Tech Fund, QBIC fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and Brabant Development Agency (BOM).

eyeo has developed the world’s most advanced nanophotonic color-splitting technology, redefining imaging for consumer, industrial, XR, smart city and mobile applications with color-splitting photonics technology that triples light sensitivity and breaks sensor resolution limits, delivering unprecedented picture quality, color accuracy and resolution.

The fresh funding will accelerate eyeo’s sensor design capabilities, deepen its OEM partner ecosystem, and drive commercial deployment across a $30 billion global imaging market.

A new era for imaging

All seven billion image sensors sold each year, across smartphones, autonomous vehicles, XR devices, industrial machines, smart cities and more, share a fundamental flaw: color filters work by rejection, blocking red, green and blue light in turn and discarding 70% of the light in the process.

eyeo’s Nanophotonic Color Splitting (NCOS®) technology platform works differently. Instead of filtering light, it splits it: separating light into its colors and guiding every photon directly to the pixel where it belongs. Backed by 26 patents, the NCOS® platform triples light sensitivity and breaks resolution limits. This breakthrough approach unlocks picture quality, color accuracy, resolution, and cost efficiency, which was never-before possible.

Compatible with existing CMOS sensor platforms, eyeo’s technology unlocks sub-micron pixels with 3x the light for ultra-compact, high-performance imaging, removing the trade-off between image quality and sensor size that has constrained product design for decades.

From breakthrough science to production-ready sensors

This Series A round marks a decisive step forward in eyeo’s commercialization journey. Building on the foundation established and proven at imec over the last seven years, multiple tier one customer engagements, and successful process integration at a commercial foundry, eyeo is now investing in the full in-house engineering capability required to deliver sensors to customers at volume scale. The funding will be deployed across three strategic priorities:

•     Building a world-class IC and system architecture design team at the Antwerp sensor design center opened earlier this year
•     Developing and releasing next-generation color-splitting image sensors in 3D-stacked CMOS technology
•     Growing sensor sales and commercial partnerships with OEM customers across smart city, industrial, XR and mobile markets worldwide

 

Videos: Galaxycore, Emberion

 

 
Transforming Infrared Imaging with Emberion’s Cutting-Edge Sensors 

 

 

 Galaxycore: What Is LOFIC? The HDR Technology Behind Advanced Image Sensors  

 

Prophesee raises €20 Million

Link: https://www.prophesee.ai/2026/06/15/prophesee-launches-mantara-event-based-drone-detection/

Prophesee raises €20 million and launches Mantara, the first fully integrated drone detection system built on event-based vision and AI 

PARIS, June 15, 2026 – As Eurosatory and Vivatech open their doors this week in Paris, Prophesee – inventor and world leader in event-based perception – announces the launch of Mantara®: the first integrated system built natively event-based for drone detection and tracking. Mantara runs on Hearth®, a new software platform with built-in AI processing.

Field-validated in June 2026, Mantara is powered by Hearth, the platform succeeding OpenEB and the Metavision SDK. These announcements coincide with a €20 million capital raise led by French fund Critical Path Ventures, with participation from existing shareholders. Prophesee is now held by a substantial majority of French shareholders.

Mantara is a camera whose performance rests on integrated sensors that do not capture images but motion and events. Each pixel responds independently, in microseconds, the instant movement occurs. Fast, erratic targets that blur or vanish between frames on a conventional camera remain perfectly visible and fully characterizable by Mantara: in low light, in backlit conditions, against cluttered backgrounds. Low latency is the heart of its edge: in the time a conventional system takes to capture, transfer, and process a single frame, Mantara has already detected a drone, characterized it, and triggered a response or initiated tracking.

This capability is rooted in a bio-mimetic design inspired by the human visual system. The eye does not record the world in full. Instead, it captures sparse, essential signals, and the brain reconstructs and interprets what matters. If Mantara is the eye, Hearth is the brain.

Hearth is built with cybersecurity requirements, GDPR compliance, and AI governance standards baked in. It enables sensor fusion and will ensure backward compatibility across successive generations of Prophesee sensors. Applications built on Metavision and OpenEB will migrate to Hearth seamlessly.

Recent conflicts have put drones at the center of modern warfare, and the threat is moving fast beyond the battlefield: airports, power plants, critical infrastructure, public gatherings. Drones fly low, change direction sharply, and increasingly carry a near-zero signature: minimal electromagnetic emissions, little acoustic output, little thermal trace. They arrive faster, and in greater numbers, with coordinated swarms capable of overwhelming defenses built to track a single target.

Mantara emits nothing. It cannot be detected or jammed. And it learns: Hearth delivers regular updates that allow every deployed unit to adapt to shifts in threat behavior. Ukraine has made this clear: tactics evolve far faster than traditional development cycles can follow.
 

Civil and Military Missions

Mantara serves both civil and defense use cases. Airports, stadiums, energy and industrial sites, prisons, and ports can integrate it into existing security infrastructure for continuous, automated airspace monitoring. Governments and defense organizations have access to the same system for force protection and counter-UAS operations.

For civil operators, Mantara also offers a compelling privacy advantage: because the sensors detect motion events rather than recording images, Mantara can track moving objects without ever producing footage that could identify individuals. This is a decisive asset for deployment over public spaces and for GDPR compliance.

Hearth: the Reference Platform for the Event-based Ecosystem

Mantara is part of a broader strategic shift encompassing Prophesee’s entire product line.

Hearth will give the event-based ecosystem a trusted reference environment for building scalable, production-grade modules and applications. It will manage sensor updates, backward compatibility, and unlock capabilities that were previously out of reach for developers and integrators working with Prophesee’s patented technology.

As part of this transition, Prophesee announces the end of life of OpenEB, its open-source framework, and of the standalone Metavision SDK. Hearth is the path forward for the developer community. Prophesee will support the migration.

Prophesee’s partners and customers have built a wide range of applications – from eye trackers and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) to ultra-fast cameras for smartphones, ping-pong playing robots, industrial inspection systems, and drone and satellite tracking and targeting solutions. Event-based vision is reaching an inflection point. The market is maturing rapidly and demanding solutions that are robust, secure, and production-ready. With around a hundred patents and multiple sensors to its name, Prophesee has industrialized event-based technology and now intends to structure the broader application ecosystem by making Hearth widely available.

Built with a Network of European Industrial Partners

Mantara benefits from Prophesee’s partnership with IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH, a leading industrial camera manufacturer. Building on the commercial success of the IDS uEye EVS camera line – based on Prophesee sensors – the two companies expanded their partnership in March 2026 with an agreement signed at Embedded World in Nuremberg to co-develop next-generation industrial vision systems.

Prophesee and Exosens have entered an MoU, paving the way for a long-term partnership to extend bio-mimetic technology beyond the visible spectrum, combining Prophesee’s event-based vision with Exosens’ detection and imaging technologies.

A €20 Million Raise to Anchor Prophesee in France

Prophesee announces a €20 million capital raise led by Critical Path Ventures, a new investor. The team has been reinforced with talent from Google, Microsoft, BCG, Thales, and companies working in drone, robotics, and quantum technologies, as well as from the armed forces. The funds will support the commercial scale-up of Mantara, the development of embedded intelligence within sensors, and the launch of Hearth. 

UV SPAD review article

"Ultraviolet Photon Detection in CMOS Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes: A Review" by Wang et al. in IEEE Sensors Journal (vol 26 no 12 June 2026)

DOI: 10.1109/JSEN.2026.3690120 

Abstract
Ultraviolet (UV) imaging is enabling a growing range of applications in industrial inspection, biomedicine, and aerospace. Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs), known for their exceptional sensitivity and fast timing resolution, have achieved remarkable success in visible and near-infrared (NIR) applications, e.g., in light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, there remains a significant gap
in the development and deployment of UV SPAD detectors. This review presents the latest progress, challenges, and application potential of SPAD technologies in deep-UV (DUV) and near-UV (NUV) ranges. It reviews the challenges in UV detection and the currently reported NUV SPADs, including wide bandgap semiconductors (WBSs), avalanche photodiodes (APDs), silicon-based SPADs with front-side illumination (FSI) and back-side illumination (BSI), and silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs). By linking UV
imaging with single-photon detection, this review aims to support future silicon-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) high-speed, large-format UV SPAD arrays, and their integration into next-generation imaging systems. 

 

 

 

HESAI color lidar

Press release (April 2026): https://www.hesaitech.com/hesai-unveils-picasso-6d-full-color-spad-soc-next-gen-etx-and-innovations-in-spatial-intelligence-and-physical-ai/

Hesai Unveils Picasso 6D Full-Color SPAD-SoC, Next-Gen ETX, and Innovations in Spatial Intelligence and Physical AI

Hesai Technology (Nasdaq: HSAI; HKEX: 2525), a global leader in intelligent technology and 3D perception, hosted its 2026 Technology Open Day on April 17, showcasing its latest generation of lidar technologies spanning full-color perception, ultra-high-resolution imaging, and spatial intelligence applications.

A key highlight was Picasso, the world’s first 6D full-color ultra-sensitive lidar SPAD-SoC, enabling native fusion of spatial and color perception at the ASIC level. Built on this platform, Hesai’s ETX lidar series has been upgraded to support up to 4320 channels and is expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2026. The company also previewed Kosmo, a new spatial intelligence AI hardware product, and outlined a new direction in robotic actuation modules for physical AI systems. 

At the core of today’s announcement is Picasso, Hesai’s fifth-generation 6D full-color ultra-sensitive lidar ASIC platform, designed to enable vehicles to see both geometry and color natively on a single chip.

Unlike conventional lidar systems that capture only geometric information such as XYZ, Picasso integrates RGB sensing and time-of-flight (ToF) ranging at the chip-level, enabling the direct generation of colorized point clouds without the need for complex sensor fusion. This 6D full-color capability delivers precise spatial and temporal alignment, resulting in richer environmental understanding and significantly enhancing the perception capabilities of next-generation autonomous systems. 

With photon detection efficiency (PDE) exceeding 40%, Picasso delivers industry-leading sensitivity, enabling stronger long-range performance, better detection of small objects, and improved performance in low-light environments within the same power envelope.

Rather than simply combining camera imagery with lidar point clouds, Picasso enables true ASIC-level fusion, with each point inherently carrying color information. This allows autonomous systems to move from spatial perception to real-time understanding of the driving environment, improving performance in different scenarios such as traffic signals, lane markings, and construction zones. 

The introduction of Picasso marks a major step in lidar development, moving beyond incremental improvements in resolution toward a new generation of full-color perception. This breakthrough is supported by Hesai’s long-term vertical integration strategy and in-house development across core lidar technologies. Following the launch of Fermi C500, a RISC-V-based high-performance lidar controller SoC that integrates MCU, FPGA functions, and ADC into a single chip, the company has established full-stack in-house ASIC development capabilities. This technology foundation has already translated into large-scale commercialization, with Hesai’s upgraded ATX lidar achieving full-scale mass production and securing over 6 million units in orders from leading OEMs.

 

ETX is expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2026, with planned deployment across multiple flagship vehicle models, supporting the large-scale adoption of L3 autonomous driving systems.