Aerospace & Defense Interconnects

Quality Parts Engineered and Built in the USA

When a signal has to survive launch loads, sustained vibration, thermal cycling, and a service life measured in decades, standard pogo pins and spring probes reach their limits. Custom Interconnects designs and manufactures Fuzz Button interconnects, interposers, and RF/coaxial connectors for aerospace and defense programs where signal and grounding integrity cannot fail. Every product is made in the United States and inspected 100 percent, down to the component piece parts, before it ships.

Built for high shock and vibration environments

A Fuzz Button is a gold-plated, wire-formed contact with no spring to fatigue and no discrete moving part to unseat under load. That makes it a proven high shock and vibration interconnect for airborne, missile, launch vehicle, and naval platforms. The same contact geometry delivers stable, low-loss RF performance and dependable grounding across temperature and mechanical stress, so signal integrity holds where conventional contacts loosen or degrade.

Made in the USA, and cleared for controlled programs

Custom Interconnects manufactures 100 percent of its products, and their component piece parts, solely within the boundaries of the United States. For aerospace and defense buyers that means a fully domestic supply chain, traceable sourcing, and no reliance on offshore production for flight and mission hardware. Because everything is built here, we are fully compliant with the import, export, and trade requirements defined by DFARS, ITAR, and the Arms Export Control Act, so our parts move onto controlled programs without a sourcing exception.

Our products are also RoHS compliant to the current standard, fully lead-free in both product and process, and compliant to IPC 1752-A.

Military grade connectors and mil-spec interconnects, built to your geometry

Most defense interconnect requirements are not catalog parts. We build military grade connectors and mil-spec interconnects to the pin count, pitch, and footprint your design demands, in PGA, BGA, LGA, CGA, QFN, MCM, and PCB/PWB interposer formats. Our .010 inch diameter Fuzz Button, the smallest we know of anywhere in the world, lets us reach fine-pitch, high-density layouts that larger contacts cannot serve. Gold-plated molybdenum, gold-plated beryllium copper, and gold-plated nickel chromium (Au/NiCr) options match the material and performance profile your program requires.

Applications across defense electronics, satellites, and harsh environments

Our interconnects go into defense electronics, satellite and space payloads, radar and RF/microwave systems, and other harsh environment applications where size, weight, power, shock, and reliability all matter at once. Non-magnetic Fuzz Button options support sensitive sensor and payload electronics where magnetic interference cannot be tolerated.

Defense electronics

Shock, vibration, SWaP

Satellite & space

Payload reliability

Radar & RF

Low-loss, stable signal

Non-magnetic

Sensitive sensors

Proven in demanding programs

Because our customers’ work is often confidential, we are limited in what we can say about specific field applications. What we can say is that where interconnects have to survive high shock, vibration, and temperature extremes, you are likely to find Fuzz Buttons at work.

You are likely to find Fuzz Buttons in programs such as:

Trusted by leading defense and aerospace organizations

Our primary customer base is made up of military, homeland security, and national defense organizations. We also work with commercial high-tech clients across RF, semiconductor, and high-speed communications.

Custom Interconnects has supplied products built to stringent specifications for over two decades. Our proprietary quality processes meet or exceed industry standards such as ISO 9000/9001, ANSI, and AS9100. We inspect 100 percent of every product and every component piece part, which is why our return rate is the lowest in the industry. For programs where a single failed interconnect can ground a platform or scrub a mission, that inspection discipline is the difference between a supplier and a qualified source.

From prototype to production

We support programs from first prototype through full production, whether the run is one piece, one hundred, or one thousand. Rather than force your design onto a standard part, we build the interconnect to fit your application, drawing on a large library of proven solutions to keep design time and cost down. Fuzz Button technology is not the right fit for every job. It is the right fit when the requirement involves high signal frequency, harsh environments, or very small spaces.