High density electrical connector and pcb footprint

The printed circuit board of claim Sin combination with an electrical connector, the electrical connector comprising a plurality of subassemblies, each subassembly comprising a plurality of surface mount contact tails aligned with a corresponding column of the connector footprint, each surface mount contact tail being soldered to a pad of the plurality of pads in the corresponding column or to a stripe of the conductive region at allocation in the corresponding column, wherein:

• each surface mount contact tail comprises a heel end and a toe end;
• a first portion of the plurality of surface mount contact tails of each subassembly extend from a first side of the subassembly and a second portion of the plurality of surface mount contact tails of each subassembly extend from a second side of the subassembly;
• and
• the first portion and the second portion of the plurality of surface mount contact tails are positioned such that the heel portion of each surface mount contact tail is soldered to the distal end of a pad of the plurality of pairs of a conductive pads.

A connector comprising:

• a plurality of subassemblies, each subassembly comprising:
• a first column of conductive elements;
• a second column of conductive elements, the second column being parallel to the first column,
• wherein:
• the conductive elements in the first column and the second column each comprises a mating contact portion, a contact tail and an intermediate portion therebetween,
• the contact tail portions of a first portion of the conductive elements in the first column each align, in a direction perpendicular to the first column, with a mating contact portion of a conductive element in the second column,
• the contact tail portions of a second portion of the conductive elements in the first column align, in a direction perpendicular to the first column, with a space between mating contact portions of conductive elements in the second column, and
• the first portion of the conductive elements comprises a plurality of first type conductive elements, each first type conductive element having two surface mount contact tails, and a planar portion between the two contact tails.