US 5,993,259 A · High speed, high density electrical connector

Abstract

A high speed, high density electrical connector for use with printed circuit boards. The connector is in two pieces with one piece having pins and shield plates and the other having socket type signal contacts and shield plates. The shields have a grounding arrangement which is adapted to control the electromagnetic fields, for various system architectures, simultaneous switching configurations and signal speeds, allowing all of the socket type signal contacts to be used for signal transmission. Additionally, at least one piece of the connector is manufactured from wafers, with each ground plane and signal column injection molded into components which, when combined, form a wafer. This construction allows very close spacing between adjacent columns of signal contacts as well as tightly controlled spacing between the signal contacts and the shields. It also allows for easy and flexible manufacture, such as a connector that has wafers intermixed in a configuration to accommodate single ended, point to point and differential applications.

Claims23

Dependent claims

An electrical connector comprising:

a) a pin header comprising:
i) an insulative base;
ii) a plurality of columns of pins attached to the insulative based;
iii) a first plurality of conducting plates attached to the insulative base, each conducting plate disposed between an adjacent column of pins and each conducting plate having formed therein a plurality of torsional contacts;
b) a mating connector piece comprising:
i) an insulative base shaped to mate with the insulative base of the pin header;
ii) a plurality of columns of receptacles, each column having a plurality of receptacles disposed to engage one of the plurality of pins;
iii) a second plurality of conducting plates, each conducting plate disposed between an adjacent column of receptacles and being disposed to engage the plurality of torsional contacts on one of the plurality of conducting plates in the pin header.

5 more elements

An electrical connector incorporated into a back plane assembly with a backplane and at least one daughter card, the electrical connector comprising:

a) a first connector piece having:
i) a plurality of pin shaped signal contacts, each signal contact having a tail portion attached to the backplane, the pin shaped signal contacts being disposed in a plurality of parallel columns;
ii) a first plurality of shield plates, each shield plate being disposed between adjacent columns of signal contacts and each having a plurality of tail portions extending therefrom and attached to the backplane, each tail portion of each shield plate being disposed between tails portions of adjacent signal contacts within the same column of signal contacts, wherein, for each shield plate, there is one tail portion between each pair of adjacent signal contacts in an adjacent column of signal contacts;
b) a second connector piece having:
i) a plurality of receptacle signal contacts, the plurality of receptacle signal contacts being disposed in a plurality of parallel columns with each receptacle disposed to engage a pin shaped signal contact;
ii) a second plurality of shield plates, each shield plate being disposed between adjacent columns of receptacle signal contacts, wherein each of the second plurality of shield plates mechanically engages one of the first plurality of shield plates with contact arms attached to one of the first or second plurality of shield plates at two points.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

High speed, high density electrical connector

Life of this patent

High speed, high density electrical connector

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23