Exxelia Ohmcraft Precision Resistors Help Ensure Reliability of The Powerful Minuteman

The United States’ Minuteman III missiles are stored in the Great Plains, lying dormant for years while withstanding the sometimes-harsh environmental conditions. They must be ready for deployment at any given moment, and the Minuteman III boasts nearly 100 percent testing reliability.

"Since first coming into service in 1970, there have been several upgrades to the Minuteman III missile,” said Eric Van Wormer, Vice President of EXXELIA Ohmcraft. “To keep the ICBM modernized and ensure its product performance throughout the years, military contractors turned to Exxelia Ohmcraft to develop the custom resistors required to support the missile’s rigorous precision and reliability specifications."

Exxelia Ohmcraft performs a full range of military lot acceptance testing (LAT) on its resistors to meet the unique design requirements for each particular application. In the case of the Minuteman III, the resistors’ small form factor was crucial to keeping the missile as lightweight as possible.

Exxelia Ohmcraft’s technology utilizes the proprietary Micropen electronic printing system to “print” precise, narrow, serpentine lines with resistive ink on a ceramic substrate, producing higher performance resistors over a wider range of values on a smaller surface area than is possible with conventional film resistor technology.