Defense systems · 2025Critical Frequency Design

VITA Spec 3U VPX Housing

A family of ESD-safe enclosures for prototype 3U VPX boards, backplanes, and RTM cards, used across four defense programs.

Role: Mechanical designer
Company: Critical Frequency Design
Platform: VITA 46 / 3U VPX
Tools: SolidWorks, Altium CoDesigner, Stratasys FDM

Problem

Engineers were handling, testing, and storing prototype 3U VPX boards, backplanes, and RTM cards without a chassis. Off-the-shelf cases didn't leave room for heatsinks, covered probe points, and didn't fit the differences between boards.

The enclosures had to protect the boards and still leave them easy to probe, debug, and carry around the lab.

What I did

I located every enclosure from one datum: a fixed offset from the VPX fin-connector centerline. Each variant sits level on a bench and goes together the same way, so a new board only needs small geometry changes.

01Board geometryModeled in SolidWorks from Altium CoDesigner imports, so each cage matches the real board and component envelope.

02AccessSidewalls stay open at probe points and heatsinks for bring-up.

03MaterialPrinted in Stratasys ESD PETG for handling near live electronics.

Result

I built the full cage library from the Advanced Processing Team's board designs, printed the parts on our Stratasys FDM machines, and handed the assemblies out to the lab.

01Four programsCovers 3U VPX boards, single backplanes, and RTM cards across four defense programs.

02Shipping enclosureOne 3U card variant moved on to evaluation as a shipping enclosure for a contractor delivery.