Richardson RFPD adds custom filtered defence connectors

Richardson RFPD and Spectrum Control are offering custom EMI-filtered MIL-DTL-38999 connectors for military, aerospace, and high-reliability electronics applications.

The connectors are available through Richardson RFPD and are designed to meet demanding environmental and electrical performance requirements. The programme offers fully customised filtered connectors with prototype or production-unit delivery in 12 to 14 weeks and no non-recurring engineering charge.

The connector range uses Spectrum Control’s EMI and EMC filtering technologies, including planar and substrate-based designs. The devices use soldered construction for high-frequency integrity, support a wide capacitance range for power and signal filtering in a single connector, and are housed in aluminium shells for harsh or weight-sensitive applications.

Standard attributes include MIL-DTL-38999 Series III compliance, square-flange wall mount format, PC-tail terminations, N-keying, 5A current rating, size 22D contacts, and dielectric withstand ratings of 200VDC working and 500VDC maximum. Quality assurance testing includes capacitance, dissipation factor, dielectric withstand voltage, and insulation resistance, with many checks performed through computer-controlled systems.

Filtered connectors combine mechanical interconnection with electromagnetic interference suppression. They can reduce the need to allocate additional board or enclosure space to separate filter networks, while helping systems meet signal-integrity and EMC requirements in confined hardware.

Aerospace and defence systems often require specific pin counts, shell sizes, contact arrangements, filtering values, keying, terminations, and mechanical configurations. Custom interconnects can become a schedule risk when they are introduced late in development or sourced through long lead-time routes.

The 12 to 14 week delivery window gives engineers a route to bring custom filtered connectors into prototype and production planning earlier. That allows EMI suppression and mechanical integration to be designed into the system rather than added as a corrective measure during qualification.

Rugged interconnect design is becoming more difficult as electronic density increases across aircraft, vehicles, unmanned systems, and secure infrastructure. Radar, electronic warfare, communications, power conversion, actuation, and digital control systems must often operate on the same platform, inside limited space, with strict electrical and environmental constraints.

In that environment, the connector is both an electrical component and a mechanical compliance element. It sits between PCB design, enclosure design, harnessing, and environmental qualification. Richardson RFPD and Spectrum Control’s custom connector programme gives high-reliability systems a faster route to filtered interconnects tailored to specific electrical and mechanical requirements.