Electrical connector for high frequency use with dual orientation

An electrical connector comprising:

• a contact module comprising an insulating housing, a shielding plate with a horizontal main body and legs, and a row of first contacts and a row of second contacts;
• the insulating housing comprising a rear base and a mating tongue extending forwardly from the rear base with a stepped portion at a root thereof to the rear base;
• the first and second rows of contacts with the main body of the shielding plate therebetween in a vertical direction integrally formed within the insulating housing;
• the main body of the shielding plate including a front section, a middle section and a rear section in a row corresponding to a front portion of the mating tongue in front of the stepped portion, the stepped portion and the rear base, respectively;
• and
• the first contacts as well as the second contacts defining twelve positions in sequence along a transverse direction of the mating tongue;
• wherein
• the shielding plate forms a pair of distinct elongated holes generally respectively aligned with and corresponding to positions 5 and 8, each elongate hole continuously extends from the front section to the rear section of the shielding plate with no partition.

An electrical connector comprising:

• a contact module including an insulative housing with a base and mating tongue extending forwardly from the base in a front-to-back direction with a stepped portion at a root thereof to the base;
• a plurality of contacts including a row of lower contacts and a row of upper contacts with a metallic shielding plate therebetween integrally formed within the insulative housing in a vertical direction perpendicular to the front-to-back direction;
• and
• the upper contacts as well as the lower contacts defining twelve positions in sequence along a transverse direction perpendicular to both the front-to-back direction and the vertical direction;
• wherein
• the contacts at positions 6/7 are high speed differential pairs, the contacts at positions 4/9 are power contacts, and the shielding plate forms a pair of elongated holes generally respectively aligned with and corresponding to positions 5 and 8 and extending along the front-to-back direction wherein
• in a top view along the vertical direction, each elongated hole extends continuously without interruption with a length not less than three fourths of that of the shielding plate in the front-to-back direction.