SPAD Alpha – High-performance single-photon Camera
SPAD Alpha by Pi Imaging is a photon-counting camera for high-speed imaging and is the camera of choice for applications in photon-counting, photon-time gating, FLIM, low light, 3D, and scientific research. The SPAD Alpha has won 1st place in the Laser World of Photonics Innovation Awards 2025!
The core of the camera is a SPAD image sensor with 1024×1024 pixels. Photon counting with up to 73,000 frames per second and zero readout noise is achieved. The global shutter enables nanosecond exposures with exposure shifts of 17 ps. The image sensor is optimized for low noise, with a typical dark count rate of less than 100 cps.
Single-photon detectors are fabricated with RGB filters allowing for photon counting in colour. The sensor features time gating to study time varying signals of interest, such as FLIM. This makes it a perfect addition to any widefield FLIM microscopy setup. The system requires just a 5V power adapter and two USB3 cables to run. For full flexibility, 2 additional control lines can be connected to the SMA connectors.
The detector is bundled with an intuitive software interface. The software gives easy access to all functionalities offered by their detectors, allows for fast prototyping and makes acquiring widefield single-photon data easier than ever.
For the advanced users, Pi Imaging offers full remote control through a standard TCP/IP interface. This enables the user to take full control of the system from any TCP/IP capable software package, such as Matlab, Octave, Labview and Python.