Company Overview
Pi Imaging Technology, founded in 2018 and based in Lausanne, Switzerland, develops state-of-the-art single-photon imaging systems based on SPAD (Single-Photon Avalanche Diode) technology. The company builds on more than 20 years of foundational research at TU Delft and EPFL, combining deep academic expertise with a fast-paced innovation mindset.
Pi Imaging’s approach emphasizes agility, rapid development, and tight feedback cycles with customers in life sciences, industrial imaging, and quantum research. Their detectors and cameras are redefining what’s possible in microscopy, spectroscopy, quantum measurement, and low-light imaging.
Today, Pi Imaging is considered a leader in the SPAD industry, helping drive the transition from traditional image sensor technology to single-photon and time-resolved systems. Their solutions are already being viewed as the next-generation replacement for PMTs, EMCCD and CMOS cameras in many scientific and industrial imaging applications—delivering better sensitivity, faster speeds, and more detailed photon-level data.
From confocal FLIM (Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy) to high-speed industrial inspection and quantum experiments, Pi Imaging’s products allow researchers and OEMs to capture the time, intensity, and location of individual photons with picosecond precision.
The Hardware Challenge in Single-Photon Imaging
Photon-level detection demands a hardware platform that can handle high data rates, provide precise timing, and integrate easily with custom boards and host software.
As an innovative company with a small team and big ambitions, Pi Imaging needed to move fast without compromising on performance. They needed a flexible, production-ready solution that could serve as a common backbone across their development platforms—while still delivering the throughput and timing fidelity required for photon-level imaging.
Pi Imaging’s SPAD-based detectors are revolutionizing photon-timing imaging by offering unprecedented timing resolution and sensitivity. Their SPAD 23 detector, for instance, features a 23-pixel array capable of time-tagging individual photons with 20 picosecond resolution, enabling applications like super-resolution imaging and quantum optics. The SPAD 512 camera, with its 512×512 pixel array, supports frame rates up to 100,000 fps and fine time gating, making it ideal for high-speed, time-resolved imaging applications.
The Solution: Opal Kelly XEM7310 and XEM7360
“As a company that needs to move fast, we needed a complete and ready-to-use FPGA solution. Opal Kelly’s hardware offered a platform that we could integrate quickly. We avoided spending precious time developing low-level infrastructure like USB drivers, memory interfaces, or firmware-level protocols. Instead, we focused on delivering a fast and revolutionary solution.”
— Stefanos Tsoukias, Electronics Engineer, Pi Imaging Technology
To support their development, Pi Imaging selected Opal Kelly’s XEM7310 and XEM7360 FPGA integration modules.
Each module is integrated with Pi Imaging’s custom boards to maximize I/O throughput and enable real-time acquisition of photon data. The XEM7310’s compact form factor and USB 3.0 interface make it ideal for portable detector systems, while the XEM7360 delivers the large logic capacity needed to support the acquisition and control system of large data rates.
Module Specifications
XEM7310-A75
| Feature | Specification |
| Interface | USB 3.0 SuperSpeed (340+ MiB/s) |
| FPGA | Xilinx XC7A75T-1 (Vivado WebPack) |
| Slice Architecture | 4 6-LUT, 8 DFF |
| Slices | 11,800 (94,400 DFFs) |
| FPGA RAM | 3,780 Kib BlockRAM, 892 Kib Distributed |
| MULT / DSP | 180 |
| CMTs | 6 |
| On-Board DDR3 | 1,024 MiB (x32, 25.6 Gb/s peak bandwidth) |
| System FlashFPGA Bootable? | 128 MibYes |
| FPGA FlashFPGA Bootable? | 128 MibNo |
XEM7360-K160T
| Feature | Specification |
| FPGA | Xilinx XC7K160T-1FFG676C |
| CLB • Slices | 25,350 |
| CLB • Distributed RAM | 2,188 Kib |
| Block RAM | 11,700 Kib |
| DSP Slices | 600 |
| CMTs | 8 |
| I/O | 193 I/O |
| Transceivers | 8 Gigabit Transceivers |
At the software level, the team relies on the Opal Kelly FrontPanel SDK for communication and data handling. Its stability and simplicity allowed their engineering team to stay focused on developing the core product rather than low-level device communication.
Impact: Faster Development, Photon-Level Precision
With Opal Kelly, Pi Imaging has:
- Cut time-to-market for multiple SPAD-based products
- Focused engineering effort on core innovation—photon detection and imaging
Their detectors now power applications across research, biotech, OEM integrations, and quantum photonics. As their roadmap expands to include red-sensitive detectors and software-controlled workflows, the scalable Opal Kelly platform continues to provide a reliable and adaptable foundation for product development.
