Connector and printed circuit board with surface ground plane

A printed circuit board comprising:

• a top surface for mounting a connector, the top surface having a plurality of signal mounting positions for the connector, a plurality of ground mounting positions for the connector, anti-pads around the plurality of signal mounting positions and a mounting region with an outer boundary formed between outermost signal mounting positions;
• and
• a ground plane covering the top surface of the mounting region except for vias, and the anti-pads, wherein a surface area of the ground plane covers at least 50% of a total surface area of the mounting region.

A connector comprising:

• a plurality of wafers configured to form a mounting face and a mating face, the mounting face further configured for mounting on a top surface of a printed circuit board which has a ground plane whose surface area covers at least 50% of a total surface area of an area opposite a mounting region of the mounting face, the mounting face comprising at least one conductive surface electrically coupled to a ground, the connector being configured for mounting on the circuit board such that the at least one conductive surface is within 0.3 mm of the ground plane and is further configured to operate at a data rate of at least 56 Gbps,
• wherein the plurality of wafers comprise including signaling wafers, the signaling wafers configured to support a plurality of signal terminals, and each of the plurality of signal terminals comprises a tail portion, a contact portion and a body portion extending between the contact portion and the tail portion, so that (i) the contact portions of the signal terminals are adjacent the mating face and (ii) the tail portions of the signal terminals are adjacent the mounting face and form a mounting region on the mounting face.

31-32. (canceled)