Staggered contact pad paddle card

A paddle card for a pluggable module, comprising:

• a mating tip at one end;
• a first cluster group of contact pads set back from a front edge of the mating tip along a longitudinal axis of the paddle card to within a surface range of the paddle card;
• and
• a second cluster group of contact pads set back from the front edge of the mating tip along the longitudinal axis to within a second surface range of the paddle card, wherein:
• the first cluster group comprises a first inline row and a second inline row of contact pads at a top surface of the paddle card;
• the second cluster group comprises a third inline row and a fourth inline row of contact pads at the top surface of the paddle card;
• contact pads in the first inline row are staggered in a transverse direction from contact pads in the second inline row;
• and
• contact pads in the third inline row are staggered in the transverse direction from the fourth inline row.