Singular Photonics raises US$2.15mn for next-gen SPADs

Singular Photonics Lands Funding to Launch Next-Generation Image Sensors as Commercial Traction Grows

Fabless semiconductor startup appoints former Arm CTO to Board as demand for SPAD-based image sensors accelerates.

Edinburgh, UK – August 19, 2026 – Singular Photonics, a developer of SPAD-based image sensors, today announced it has closed an oversubscribed $2.15 million funding round, led by ACF Investors, with participation from Wren Capital, Cambridge Angels, Scottish Enterprise, Quantum Exponential and Old College Capital. The new capital will accelerate development of a new generation of sensors, expanding the company's product roadmap in response to demand from its growing customer base.
Singular has already doubled its full-year 2025 sales in 2026 to date, driven by customer engagements spanning multiple sectors, including a recent collaboration with instrumentation leader Renishaw. The investment will be used to scale engineering capacity and speed time-to-market for new image sensors capable of advancing new applications in markets ranging from machine vision, industrial automation and physical AI to scientific discovery and medical imaging.
 
“This has been a phenomenal year for Singular Photonics,” said CEO Shahida Imani. “We've already doubled our 2025 sales, we're approaching break-even, and our customers are telling us exactly what they want from future products. This oversubscribed round means we can respond faster – expanding our sensor portfolio and bringing new features to market on our customers’ timelines, not just our own.”
 
“Singular Photonics is an exciting addition to our portfolio, combining world-leading sensor science with genuine commercial promise,” said Tim Mills, Managing Partner at ACF Investors. “The industry is moving from capturing images to generating actionable insights directly from light itself, and Singular has both the technology and the team to lead that shift. We're delighted to back them into their next phase of growth.”
 
“Scottish Enterprise has supported Singular Photonics ambition to develop SPAD-based image sensors over several years,” said Derek Shaw, Director of Company Funding & Investment at Scottish Enterprise. “The Photonics, Quantum, Sensing and Connectivity and Semi-conductors Sector is a key opportunity area for growth for Scotland. Companies such as Singular Photonics can play a vital role in transforming our economy by scaling-up, creating high value jobs and competing internationally.” 
 
“In a strong signal of confidence in Singular’s trajectory, existing shareholders followed the new investors into the round, meeting or exceeding their pre-emption rights,” said Singular Photonics Chairman Pete Hutton. “Combined with the appetite shown by new investors, the round was met with robust demand – a clear vote of confidence in the team, the technology and the commercial momentum the company has built.”

Dipesh Patel joins Board
Singular also announced that Dipesh Patel, the former CTO of global semiconductor giant Arm, has joined the company’s board of directors. During his 25 years at Arm, Dr. Patel held a number of general and technical management positions culminating in his role as CTO where he was responsible for the Research and Digital IT functions.
 
“Singular Photonics is transforming image sensors from passive imaging devices into intelligent sensing platforms,” said Dr. Patel. “SPADs have long been viewed as highly sensitive photon-counting devices, but Singular is showing the world that a far greater opportunity is now emerging, and I’m looking forward to helping the company capitalise on that opportunity.”
 
Powering the SPAD revolution
Every digital camera, industrial vision system and scientific imaging instrument depends on image sensors to capture light and convert it into useful information. Over the decades, these sensors have improved, but they are now approaching the limits of how much information can be captured. The arrival of sensors based on single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) is changing that.
Unlike conventional image sensors, which essentially measure the intensity of light, SPAD sensors can precisely detect and time individual photons (the smallest units of light). This opens the door to an entirely new generation of imaging systems that can capture information that conventional cameras simply cannot see.
 
Singular Photonics is pioneering the development of SPAD-based image sensors that also integrate advanced on-chip computation. This allows information to be analysed at the point where light is first detected, making the company’s sensors capable of extracting meaningful information in real time. As sensors become increasingly capable of understanding the information they capture, they can enable smaller, faster and more efficient systems that meet the growing demands of edge computing and AI-driven applications.

Sony TSMC collab

Link: https://www.sony-semicon.com/en/news/2026/2026081101.html

Sony Semiconductor Solutions and TSMC Agreed to Establish Joint Venture for Next-Generation Image Sensors

Atsugi, Japan and HSINCHU, Taiwan, R.O.C., August 11, 2026 - Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (“Sony”) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (“TSMC”) (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced the execution of a legally binding definitive agreement for the establishment of Advanced Vision Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation as a joint venture (“JV”) in Koshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. The JV will serve as a core hub for the development and manufacturing activities required for the volume production of image sensors for smartphones utilizing advanced manufacturing process technology. The JV is expected to commence volume production in 2029.

Sony will be the sole controlling shareholder and the JV is planned to operate as a consolidated subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. The Representative Director of the JV is planned to be appointed by Sony.

Pursuant to the definitive agreement, Sony plans to contribute approximately 465 billion yen to the JV through a combination of cash contributions and the transfer of its assets* through a company split. TSMC plans to make cash contributions of approximately 282 billion yen. These capital contributions are expected to be made in phases based on market demand and other relevant business conditions. In addition to these capital contributions by Sony and TSMC, investments required to realize the production capacity planned by the JV are being considered on the premise that they would receive support from the Japanese government.

Under the strategic partnership, Sony intends to take a leading role in the development of core image sensor technologies, as well as product planning and product design. The JV plans to leverage TSMC’s advanced process technology and manufacturing expertise to drive development and manufacturing activities required for the volume production. Through this collaboration, the companies intend to accelerate the commercialization of image sensor products driven by customer needs while advancing technological innovation and strengthening manufacturing capacity.

The establishment of the JV and completion of the transaction are subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. 

All other aspects of the partnership remain unchanged from the announcement by Sony and TSMC titled “Sony Semiconductor Solutions and TSMC Enter Preliminary Agreement for Next-Generation Image Sensor Strategic Partnership” issued on May 8, 2026. 

IISS 2027 Awards Nominations Open

Call for 2027 IISS award nominations is now open. 

IISS AWARD NOMINATIONS:

    Walter Kosonocky Award: call for nomination and nomination form (Due Jan 15, 2027)
    IISS Awards: call for nomination and nomination form (Due Nov 30, 2026)

IEEE 4001 Standard announced

See also IEEE blogpost: https://standards.ieee.org/beyond-standards/how-good-is-the-camera-ieee-4001-gives-answers/ 

How good is your camera, actually? This question is addressed by the new IEEE 4001 standard, developed by a large group of people from the hyperspectral imaging community, recognizing that an improvement over current practice in this field is needed. This standard defines a set of performance characteristics that are directly comparable between cameras. It can be seen as an analog to the EMVA 1288 for image sensors, by defining a similarly comprehensive specification for complete cameras. To serve this purpose, some new characteristics have been developed for IEEE 4001. The standard also defines camera-related metadata that quantify the effects imprinted by the camera on an image. The formal scope of the standard is hyperspectral imaging, but it can be readily adapted to other imaging modalities where it also has potential to be useful. The standard can be downloaded from the IEEE XPLORE site (for free with library access, or through a $133 paywall). Here is an excerpt from the IEEE press release:


Comprehensive, yet minimal, camera characteristics

IEEE 4001 incorporates many conventional camera characteristics, but also some newly developed performance metrics, in order to arrive at a minimal (necessary and sufficient) set that includes parameters of a complete signal model, as well as measures of actual resolution and various nonidealities. Many aspects of camera performance are covered:

Spectral: Spectral range, Number of bands, Spectral peak width, Spectral sampling interval, Equivalent Band Count

Spatial: Pixel format, Field of view, Geometrical pixel field of view, Peak width, Equivalent Pixel Count, Effective spatial fill factor, Spatial distortion, Object distance

Radiometric: Effective throughput, Response nonuniformity, Read noise, Normalized read noise, Dark current, NESR at the noise floor, Saturation capacity, Linearity error, Signal to noise ratio, Dynamic range, Dark correction

Temporal: Maximum frame rate, Integration time range, Synchronization between bands, Dead time

Coregistration: Spatial coregistration error, Spectral coregistration error

Stray light: Stray light apparent reflectance

Data output: Output data level, Real time capability, Synchronization capability, Invalid data flagging

Calibration: Statement of radiometric, spectral, and geometrical accuracy

Other characteristics: Bad pixels, Polarization dependence, Detector type/temperature

Metadata enhancing image exploitation

IEEE 4001 also defines camera-related metadata describing the influence of camera properties on a given image. With IEEE 4001-compliant metadata, it is for example possible to estimate the signal-dependent physical noise amplitude in all pixels and all bands, and to estimate the local magnitude of artifacts due to coregistration error. This can enable more accurate extraction of information from imagery.

 

 

ST releases dToF sensor with 54x42 zones and 100fps

STMicroelectronics unveils new compact direct Time-of-Flight 3D LiDAR module bringing high-resolution spatial awareness to compact edge AI systems with industry-leading resolution and performance

VL53L9 is the first direct Time-of-Flight (dToF) 3D LiDAR all-in-one module in ST’s portfolio, offering a resolution of 2.3K zones, wide field of view, on-chip processing, 100 frames per second, and sensing range from 5 centimeters to 9 meters.

Designed to meet the evolving needs of customers and partners across diverse industries, including robotics, industrial automation, smart buildings, AR/VR, and healthcare.

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, today [June 23, 2026] announced the launch of the VL53L9, a compact direct Time-of-Flight 3D LiDAR all-in-one module that sets a new benchmark in high-resolution sensing. The VL53L9 combines state-of-the-art features in a compact and cost-effective package, delivering AI-ready output data for low-compute edge AI systems on small microcontrollers (MCUs) and high-performance sensing across a wide range of applications across robotics, industrial automation, smart buildings, AR/VR, and healthcare.

“VL53L9 demonstrates how far Time-of-Flight sensing has evolved, combining high-resolution depth data, up to 100 frames per second, and a fully integrated architecture in a single compact module. By simplifying integration and reducing system complexity, we enable customers to accelerate the development of applications such as robotics, smart infrastructure, and healthcare monitoring,” said Alexandre Balmefrezol, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Imaging Sub-Group at STMicroelectronics. “This launch reflects our strategy to move beyond standalone sensors and deliver integrated sensing systems that support real-world edge AI.”

“3D sensing demand accelerates across robotics, industrial automation, XR, and intelligent consumer devices. Time-of-Flight technology is expanding beyond smartphones into applications requiring compact, affordable, and precise depth perception, from navigation and people monitoring to gesture recognition and safety. Higher resolution multizone dToF modules are now emerging as key enablers for this next wave of 3D sensing adoption,” said Anas Chalak, Market & Technology Analyst at Yole Group.

ST FlightSense™ VL53L9 is designed for multiple industry use cases:

– Robotics: enhanced small object detection, SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) and obstacle avoidance for autonomous navigation.

– Industrial automation: accurate volume measurement in tanks and bins, improving operational efficiency and inventory management.

– Smart buildings and homes: reliable human presence detection and people counting while preserving user privacy.

– AR/VR and consumer electronics: advanced gesture recognition, body tracking and finger skeleton for immersive user experiences.

– Healthcare: fall detection and monitoring solutions for eldercare and patient safety.

Enhancing 3D sensing with precision and efficiency

The VL53L9 offers an unprecedented 2,268 resolution zones (54×42) with a wide 54°x42° field of view, enabling detailed 3D depth mapping and precise detection of small objects, contours, and edges. Leveraging ST’s proprietary stacked BSI SPAD sensor technology and innovative metasurface optical elements (MOE), the module delivers fast and accurate ranging from less than 5 cm up to 9 meters with up to 1% accuracy and a frame rate of 100 frames per second.

All-in-one sensing data for edge AI and easy integration

The VL53L9’s dual-scan flood illumination replaces traditional dot scanning, reducing motion artifacts, eliminating dead zones, improving small-object detection, and capturing complementary 2D infrared and 3D depth images. Compared to competition, this greatly simplifies post-processing and enables a broad range of edge AI use cases to run efficiently on small MCUs with low compute requirements. The all-in-one module further integrates on-chip dToF processing, a dedicated power management IC, and is fully calibration-free, simplifying integration and reducing system cost and complexity.

Compact form factor

Measuring just 12.8 mm x 6.1 mm x 4.6 mm, the VL53L9 is a reflowable, single-component module compatible with a wide range of cover glass materials. It supports dual power supply operation (1.2 V and 3.3 V) and outputs data via MIPI or I3C interfaces, ensuring compatibility with diverse CPU architectures. The module is certified as Class 1 laser safe, providing reliable and secure operation for end users.

Availability

ST FlightSense™ VL53L9 in mass production in early July 2026 with samples and volume shipments available to customers globally. For more information, visit the VL53L9 product page: https://www.st.com/en/imaging-and-photonics-solutions/vl53l9cx.html 

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