Electrical connector having improved contacts

Abstract

A male connector (10) includes first and second individual housing portions (28, 30) engaging with each other, a number of printed substrates (16) held by the first housing portion and a number of signal contacts (18) and a number of grounding terminals (20) held by the second housing portion with the signal contacts confronting the grounding terminals. Each printed substrate has a first edge (108) and a second edge (110) orthogonal with the first edge. The first edges of the printed substrates are hidden behind corresponding lead-in bars (44) of the first housing portion and the second edges of the printed substrates are sandwiched between and removeably held by the signal contacts and the grounding terminals. The second edges of the printed substrates are pushed toward the signal contacts by the grounding terminals because the grounding terminals are somewhat stronger than the signal contacts. A female connector (12) mateable with the male connector includes a dielectric member (22) and a number of signal contacts (24) and a number of grounding terminals (26) retained in the dielectric member in face-to-face relationship. The signal contacts straddle on a bottom surface (128) of the dielectric member. Each signal contact (24) has an inclined retention portion (132) defining a slot (136) engageably receiving a protrusion (130) of the dielectric member on the bottom face thereof. The male and the female connectors have a guiding means for guiding the connectors to correctly mate with each other.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.