Optoelectronics
Optical isolation delivers advantages for HV applications as electrification drives demand for fibre optic tech
As global demand for electricity continues to grow rapidly, William Heath, managing director at optoelectronics manufacturer OMC, explains the advantages that the company’s industrial fibre-optic datalinks and optoelectronic cable assemblies offer for high voltage (HV) application
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lobal megatrends are accelerating demand for electricity. Continued electrification of transport (including EVs and rail),
industrial machines (for instance, via electric motors), and commercial and domestic appliances (such as HVAC systems), alongside ongoing growth of renewable energy sources (supported by investments in grid infrastructure), are key drivers. So too is the rapidly increasing usage of AI and cloud-based services, powered by energy-intensive data centres, plus the proliferation of wireless, mobile and smart technologies. All these factors are accelerating the shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon electricity to meet rising energy needs and achieve climate goals. According to a 2025 IEA (International Energy Agency) report, despite ongoing economic headwinds, global electricity demand is expected to keep growing robustly through 2026 – and at one of the fastest sustained paces in over a decade. Electricity demand was set to rise by 3.3 per cent in 2025 and 3.7 per cent in 2026 – more than twice as fast as total energy demand growth over the same period. And while this has slowed from the 4.4 per cent surge recorded in 2024, it remains well above the 2015-2023 average of 2.6 per cent.
Renewables are set to overtake coal as the world’s largest source of electricity as early as 2025 or by 2026 at the latest, depending on weather and fuel price trends. As a result, carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation are currently forecast to plateau in 2025 and record a slight decline in 2026. Against this backdrop, OMC, a specialist in optoelectronics design and manufacture, is experiencing rising demand for its industrial fibre-optic datalinks and optoelectronic cable assemblies for high voltage (HV) applications. Mission-critical applications include reliable
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interference-resistant and electrically isolated sensing, monitoring, data transmission, communications and control in infrastructure throughout rail networks and power generation, transmission, distribution and supply.
The dielectric construction and optical isolation of fibre optic technologies mean they are well-suited for high voltage applications. This is due to inherent advantages including enhanced safety, resistance to high voltage breakdown, high bandwidth capabilities with low signal loss, immunity to EMI and resistance to environmental factors. While HV applications such as power supplies and power distribution networks can benefit from optical isolation because of the voltages present, achieving consistency of performance in fibre-optic datalinks often proves challenging for many providers. But OMC offers a fibre-optic link service specifically tailored to meet the demanding requirements of the high voltage sector, designed to reliably produce production quantities of complete fibre-optic datalinks
with 100 per cent consistency.
OMC has combined 40 years of experience in producing glass and polymer fibre optic cable assemblies with its own proprietary Active Alignment technology to ensure that its fibre-optic datalinks perform consistently and reliably from link to link. During manufacture of its housed optical transmitters (Tx) and receivers (Rx), OMC powers on each active element and tunes its performance to ensure that the electro-optical characteristics of every single device fall within a customer-specific performance window, exactly matching the required performance specification. Equally, when manufacturing the corresponding optical fibre cable assembly to be used between the Tx/Rx, OMC’s unique production techniques help ensure a very high level of consistency of link attenuation which is matched to the Tx/Rx performance window, meaning that each and every link can be expected to function for the full design life, regardless of how the transmitters, receivers and cables are paired during assembly/ installation.
Most manufacturers of optical fibre cables don’t touch the transmitter/receiver part of the link – and similarly, few Tx/Rx providers are specialists in fibre-optic cable assemblies. And in our experience, most customers don’t want to get involved in either area: they simply have an electrical signal at point A – and want a link that will convert it to an optical signal, transmit it, and convert it back to an electrical signal at point B safely, reliably and consistently from link to link. The problem is particularly apparent in HV applications, where tolerances can be very tight, and a lack of consistency between transmitter, receiver and cable characteristics means that customers must often go through a lengthy and costly selection process to yield sufficient complete links to satisfy a production demand. OMC specialises in the manufacture of both Tx/Rx devices, as well as the fibre optic cable assemblies to link between them. By tailoring our existing technologies to suit each application, we can supply production quantities of fully-characterised fibre optic links with 100 per cent link consistency to leading producers of HV equipment used in mass transit, power generation and distribution, medical, radar and x-ray applications.
OMC offers a full range of transmitters, receivers and connector styles, alongside both plastic and glass fibre systems. The company is also highly experienced in producing both polymer and glass fibre cable assemblies to suit customer requirements. The company’s complete datalink manufacturing service allows design engineers to avoid ‘mixing and matching’ off-the-shelf components, which can result in unreliable systems. And because it is technology-agnostic, OMC can advise on the best choice of technology to suit the application.
https://www.omc-uk.com/ Components in Electronics March 2026 33
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