Communications connector having crosstalk compensation

A patch distribution module for electrically coupling at least one modular plug to a multiple pair connector, said module comprising:

• an outer housing composed of a dielectric material;
• at least one connector jack adapted to electrically connect to the at least one modular plug;
• an internal fanout assembly having a plurality of conductors arranged so as to form a compensation area that counteracts crosstalk created by the multiple pair connector;
• and
• an internal circuit board electrically connected to both said at least one connector jack and said internal fanout assembly, said circuit board having a plurality of circuit board layers that include a plurality of capacitive and inductive devices that counteract the crosstalk created by the at least one modular plug.

A crosstalk compensating circuit board, comprising:

• a plurality of circuit board layers including a component side and a wiring side, each of said component and wiring sides having an outer surface;
• a plurality of capacitive devices provided on said circuit board layers;
• and
• at least one capacitive device provided on said outer surface of at least one of said component and wiring sides, said at least one capacitive device being arranged so as to produce a predetermined capacitance in conjunction with at least one of said plurality of capacitive devices provided on said circuit board layers, said at least one capacitive device further being manually reducible in size so as to adjust the amount of capacitance created therewith such that the amount of crosstalk compensation provided by said crosstalk compensation circuit board can be adjusted.

A method for adjusting the amount of crosstalk compensation produced by conductor pairs of a connector, said method including the steps of:

• electrically connecting the conductor pairs to a multi-layered circuit board having a component side outer surface and a wiring side outer surface;
• providing at least one of the layers of the circuit board with at least one capacitive device;
• providing at least one capacitive device on the outer surface of at least one of the component and wiring sides, the at least one capacitive device being arranged so as to produce a predetermined capacitance in conjunction with the at least one capacitive device provided on at least one of the circuit board layers when a signal is transmitted through the conductor pairs;
• and
• adjusting the size of the at least one capacitive device on the outer surface so as to adjust the amount of capacitance created within the circuit board such that the amount of crosstalk compensation provided to said conductor pairs.