Updates for our flagship SPAD arrays, SPAD 93 and SPAD 23 Red

We’re excited to announce hardware and software updates for our flagship SPAD arrays, SPAD 93 and SPAD 23 Red! These arrays, optimized for 520 nm and 620 nm photon counting detection, now hold two important new features:

Achieve low noise with active temperature control!

Did you know that dark count rate is exponentially increasing with temperature? Dark count rate (DCR) doubles every ~7°C the, making cooling an efficient way to decrease the noise and potentially increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR).

SPAD array chip showing a package-integrated Peltier cooler for active temperature control.
SPAD array chip showing a package-integrated Peltier cooler for active temperature control.
The temperature is controlled in an epoxy sealed package, enabling decrease of the temperature down to 15°C.
Exponential dependence of DCR with respect to the temperature.

Charge your photon time stamping with 2GB on-detector memory.

We implemented a 2GB DDR3 memory to handle demanding high light intensity conditions in time stamping (time tagging) mode. While our photon counting mode already enables utilizing the full dynamic range of the SPAD pixels, the enormous data rate generated by the 32-bit data set for each photon in time stamping mode can sometimes exceed PC throughput.

The new 2GB DDR3 memory acts as a high-speed buffer, allowing our detectors to seamlessly absorb short, intense bursts of photons. This critical upgrade reduces count loss, ensuring high-fidelity data capture, even with uniformly high light patterns!

Increased count rate throughput in time stamping mode measured with and without our DDR3 memory, leading to lower data losses. Measured at uniform light intensity.
Increased count rate throughput in time stamping mode measured with and without our DDR3 memory, leading to lower data losses. Measured at uniform light intensity.

Contact:
Pi Imaging Technology – a ZEISS company
www.PiImaging.com
info@piimaging.com
+41765733314

April 3, 2026