Sophoton

About Sophoton

Sophoton, established in 2021 by Yan Zhao and headquartered in Suzhou, China, develops and manufactures high-performance, single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) system-on-a-chip (SoC) products. The company operates within the application-specific semiconductor industry, providing its technology for the automotive, robotics, and extended reality (XR) markets. Sophoton has secured over $14 million in funding through angel, pre-A, and pre-A+ financing rounds from investors including Baidu Venture Capital.

The company’s core business revolves around creating SPAD-SoC chips and direct time-of-flight (dToF) 3D perception technology. This technology is designed to substantially simplify existing lidar systems, aiming to redefine performance, size, and cost standards. The business model focuses on providing these advanced chips and solutions to manufacturers and developers in its target sectors. Sophoton’s team is composed of experts with experience in BSI SPAD, analog and digital design, and lidar systems, which is central to their in-house development of full-chip technology.

Sophoton offers several products, including the SK Series and the SQ100 SPAD-SoC. The SK Series is a single-point SPAD-SoC that integrates sensing, computing, and storage, which reduces system size, power consumption, and cost. It is used for applications like laser ranging, 3D mapping, and object detection in devices such as robot vacuums, service robots, and drones. The SQ100 SPAD-SoC is a 2D addressable dToF chip designed for more demanding applications like ADAS, L4/5 autonomous driving, and industrial automation. This chip can cover short, mid, and long-range detection and is engineered to work without an FPGA or MCU, which further reduces system cost and size.