What is Omega Optical?
Omega Optical was created by bringing together four original brands, now unified and centralized to deliver precision optical filters, custom optical coatings, diffractive optics, and infrared components. Thanks to these combined specialties, we’re able to offer rare end-to-end service, so our customers benefit not only from our collective expertise but also from the legacy of 85 years of combined experience.
The team at Omega is dedicated to tackling every challenge we encounter with innovation and precision. Whether you need a simple enhancement or a critical breakthrough, our elite yet accessible team of engineers offers unparalleled resourcefulness and creativity. We collaborate directly with our customers' teams, enabling us to delve deeper and find the perfect solution for them. We provide solutions across multiple markets and applications, including, but not limited to, emissions monitoring, spectrometry, flow cytometry, and hyperspectral imaging.
Can you briefly describe your role at Omega Optical and your focus within the company's hyperspectral imaging efforts?
My role with Omega Optical is to work with the customer and our engineering team to provide a solution that meets the customer's needs and is reproducible in manufacturing for consistent performance unit to unit. I cover our entire platform product range for Omega, which allows for more in-depth conversations with customers, as you can discuss the interaction between components in the system and how it relates to performance.
What sets Omega Optical apart in the competitive landscape of hyperspectral imaging optics?
Omega's ability to design and provide all the components from source to detector in a hyperspectral system gives us our unique advantage. This includes custom diffraction gratings, order sorting and LV filters, and coated or diamond-turned mirrors. Our ability to help guide our customers when it comes to performance vs. cost is also extremely helpful.
What are some of the more exciting or emerging applications you're seeing in the hyperspectral imaging space?
Some of our more fascinating applications take place in the art world, where precise color matching is essential for recreating original works. On the other end of the spectrum, the same technology can help determine whether a painting is an original or a replica by detecting subtle color differences. Hyperspectral cameras are also widely used in forensic analysis, helping law enforcement agencies investigate crime scenes with enhanced detail.
We also support customers in recycling and waste management. In these high-speed environments, hyperspectral cameras play a critical role, positioned above rapidly moving conveyor belts, they identify plastics, metals, and other materials in real time. This enables accurate, automated sorting and routing of thousands of cubic feet of material quickly and efficiently.
Another exciting use of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is aboard low Earth orbit satellites. These systems allow end users to monitor gas leaks, track emissions, locate mineral deposits, and much more. By providing real-time data on air quality and environmental conditions, this technology helps identify sources of pollution and supports efforts to mitigate their impact.
Who typically initiates contact with Omega for hyperspectral projects—CTOs, VPs of Engineering, or other technical leads?
Typically, we work with both optical and mechanical engineers to design the components, with respect to both their optical qualities and physical dimensions.
How does Omega support teams that don't have in-house optical expertise, such as mechanical engineers needing optical design advice?
To reiterate, because we design all of the internal components ourselves, we can demonstrate how specific changes will impact your overall system. For example, we can show the effects of grating line spacing or the placement of a long-pass filter for order sorting. While system-level properties are ultimately defined by the end customer, we work closely with engineers to help them meet those requirements.
It’s also quite common to overspec components during the design phase of a new system—an approach that can significantly increase costs and potentially delay progress. We help teams avoid these pitfalls by guiding them toward optimized, right-sized solutions.
Image Credit: Omega Optical
What trends are you seeing in hyperspectral imaging that you believe will shape the next 3–5 years?
The current way of the world is miniaturization, and I believe HSI will follow that trend as well. There are tradeoffs with producing smaller systems, namely resolution, which, depending on the application, may or may not matter. A portable hyperspectral system would certainly open up its use to many in the field applications.
Coinciding with the push toward smaller systems is the growing expectation of lower costs. However, size and cost don't always scale together—reductions in size can eventually drive costs up, especially when optics become so small that they’re difficult to handle and manufacture. If a portable, cost-effective hyperspectral camera were developed to meet market demands, it would likely generate strong interest from the scientific community across a wide range of industries.
How is Omega positioning itself at the forefront of this evolving market?
Omega already produces extremely small optics to meet this challenging demand. Our team in Massachusetts produces hundreds of thousands of replica diffraction gratings per year, which are both repeatable and economical. This ability to produce high-volume replicas at a competitive market price sets us apart from many others and enables any company looking to enter the consumer and portable market space.
Our team in Ithaca, New York, known for metal mirrors and AR coatings, utilizes our large coating chambers and can produce competitive mirrors and coatings at overseas prices, depending on volume. This is critical to our goal of offering customers full solutions, source-to-sensor, while staying competitive on pricing.
About Robert Holmes 
Robert Holmes is a Senior Account Manager for Industrial and Semiconductor customers. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with a focus in Biology. Robert joined Omega Optical at the Diffraction Gratings Division originally as a Manufacturing Engineer. He has since worked on product development projects, including the recent SPIE Prism Award winning Deep UV Gratings.
This information has been sourced, reviewed and adapted from materials provided by Omega Optical, Inc.
For more information on this source, please visit Omega Optical, Inc.
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