Electrical connector including means for terminating the shield of a high speed cable

An electrical connector, comprising:

• a housing molded of dielectric material and including a front mating end and a rear terminating end, a plurality of terminal-receiving passages extending generally between said ends, and a blade-receiving passage extending generally between the ends;
• a plurality of terminals received in said terminal-receiving passages;
• a conductive generally planar ground blade received in said blade-receiving passage and including a pair of positioning arms projecting from each opposite side of the ground blade at a rear terminating end thereof near the rear terminating end of the housing for engaging metallic shields of four coaxial cables, and a slot in the ground blade near said rear terminating end thereof;
• and
• a partition integral with the housing and extending between each pair of positioning arms to separate the coaxial cables, maintain the cables in four quadrants with the metallic shields near respective one of the positioning arms, at least one of the partitions extending through the slot in the ground blade, said partition including a wall projecting through the slot and between the positioning arms.

A termination system for terminating at least a pair of coaxial cables each having an inner conductor, an inner dielectric surrounding at least a portion of said inner conductor, a metallic shield surrounding at least a portion of the inner dielectric and an outer insulating jacket surrounding at least a portion of the metallic shield, a portion of the outer jacket of each of the cables being removed to expose an exposed portion of the metallic shield, comprising:

• a connector including a dielectric housing;
• a plurality of terminals mounted in the housing;
• a conductive ground blade mounted in the housing and including at least a pair of spaced positioning arms for engaging the metallic shields of the pair of coaxial cables;
• and
• a partition integral with the housing extending between the positioning arms to separate the coaxial cables and maintain the metallic shields near the positioning arms.