Claims
- 1. An electrical connector comprising:
a plurality of signal contacts; and a plurality of ground contacts; wherein the plurality of signal contacts and the plurality of ground contacts are arranged such that insertion loss and cross talk are limited as a result of the arrangement.
- 2. The electrical connector of claim 1, comprising a first signal contact and a second signal contact, the first and second signal contacts having a gap between them and forming a first differential signal pair, wherein a differential signal in the first differential signal pair produces a high field in the gap and a low field near a second differential signal pair that is adjacent to the first differential signal pair.
- 3. The electrical connector of claim 1, comprising a first signal contact that is edge-coupled with a second signal contact.
- 4. The electrical connector of claim 1, comprising an array of edge-coupled pairs of signal contacts.
- 5. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a communication speed of about 10 gigabits per second.
- 6. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a row pitch of about 1.4 mm.
- 7. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a column pitch of about 2.0 mm.
- 8. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a card pitch of about 25 mm.
- 9. The electrical connector of claim 1, comprising a housing though which the contacts extend.
- 10. The electrical connector of claim 9, wherein the housing is filled at least in part with a dielectric material that insulates the contacts.
- 11. The electrical connector of claim 10, wherein the dielectric material is air.
- 12. The electrical connector of claim 11, wherein the connector is a right angle, ball grid assembly connector.
- 13. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a near-end cross talk of less than about 3 percent at 40 picoseconds rise time with 63.5 mated signal pairs per linear inch.
- 14. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a far-end cross talk of less than 4% at 40 picoseconds rise time with 63.5 mated signal pairs per linear inch.
- 15. The electrical connector of claim 1, wherein the contacts are arranged to include a first differential signal pair along a first contact column and a second differential signal pair along a second contact column.
- 16. The electrical connector of claim 15, wherein the second differential signal pair is adjacent to the first differential signal pair and the connector is devoid of shields between the first differential signal pair and the second differential signal pair.
- 17. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a contact density of about 63.5 mated signal pairs per linear inch.
- 18. The electrical connector of claim 1, having a contact density of more than about 63.5 mated signal pairs per linear inch.
- 19. The electrical connector of claim 1, having an insertion loss of less than about 0.7 dB at 5 GHz.
- 20. The electrical connector of claim 1, having an impedance match of about 100 ohm at 40 picosecond rise time.
- 21. An electrical connector comprising:
a first differential signal pair; and a second differential signal pair positioned adjacent the first differential signal pair; wherein the connector is devoid of shields between the first differential signal pair and the second differential signal pair.
- 22. The electrical connector of claim 21, wherein the first differential signal pair is positioned along a first contact column and the second differential signal pair is positioned along a second contact column.
- 23. An electrical connector comprising:
a connector housing; a first signal contact that extends through at least a portion of the housing; and a second signal contact that extends through at least a portion of the housing; wherein the first and second signal contacts have a gap between them and form a first differential signal pair, and wherein a differential signal in the first differential signal pair produces a high field in the gap and a low field near an adjacent differential signal pair.
- 24. An electrical connector system comprising:
a plug connector having a plurality of signal contacts and a plurality of ground contacts; and a receptacle connector having a plurality of signal receptacle contacts and ground receptacle contacts for receiving associated signal contacts and ground contacts of the plug connector, wherein electrical characteristics of the connector that exist while the plug contact is fully mated with the receptacle connector are maintained when the plug connector is partially unmated with the receptacle connector.
- 25. The electrical connector system of claim 24, wherein the electrical characteristics include level of cross talk between adjacent signal contacts.
- 26. The electrical connector system of claim 24, wherein the electrical characteristics include level of loss insertion.
- 27. The electrical connector system of claim 24, wherein a signal contact mates with the associated signal receptacle contact in a mating direction, and the signal contact has a cross-sectional area transverse to the mating direction that is approximately the same as the combined cross-sectional area of the signal contact and the signal receptacle contact transverse to the mating direction.
- 28. An electrical connector comprising:
a connector housing; a first conductor extending at least partially through the connector housing and having a first length; and a second conductor extending at least partially through the connector housing and having a second length, wherein an impedance between the first and second conductors is substantially constant along the first length and second length.
- 29. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first and second conductors are conductors of a differential signal pair and the impedance is a differential impedance.
- 30. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first conductor is a signal conductor, the second conductor is a ground conductor, and the impedance is a single ended impedance.
- 31. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the impedance varies less than ten percent along the first and second length.
- 32. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the impedance varies less than five percent along the first and second length.
- 33. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first conductor comprises a first edge along the length of the first conductor, the second conductor comprises a second edge along the length of the second conductor, and a gap between the first edge and the second edge is substantially constant.
- 34. The electrical connector as recited in claim 33, wherein each conductor has a substantially rectangular cross section.
- 35. The electrical connector as recited in claim 34, wherein the width of the rectangular cross section is substantially larger than the thickness of the rectangular cross section.
- 36. The electrical connector as recited in claim 35, wherein the substantially constant gap is disposed between adjacent width faces of the rectangular cross section.
- 37. The electrical connector as recited in claim 35, wherein the substantially constant gap is disposed between adjacent thickness faces of the rectangular cross section.
- 38. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first and second conductors are conductors of a differential signal pair and further comprising:
a plurality of differential signal pairs of conductors, each differential pair of conductors having a substantially constant impedance between the pair of conductors along the length of the pair of conductors; and a plurality of ground conductors, each ground conductor disposed adjacent to one of the plurality of differential signal pairs.
- 39. The electrical connector as recited in claim 38, wherein the plurality of ground conductors and the plurality of differential signal pairs are arranged in rows.
- 40. The electrical connector as recited in claim 38, wherein the plurality of ground conductors and the plurality of differential signal pairs are arranged in columns.
- 41. The electrical connector as recited in claim 40, wherein the gap between conductors of a differential signal pair adjacent to one ground is smaller that the gap between conductors of a differential signal pair adjacent to two grounds, thereby increasing the consistency of the differential impedance of the plurality of differential signal pairs.
- 42. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein
a first portion of the first conductor is disposed in a first material having a first dielectric constant and a second portion of the first conductor is disposed in a second material having a second dielectric constant; a first portion of the second conductor is disposed in the first material and a second portion of the second conductor is disposed in the second material; the gap between the first conductor and the second conductor in the first material is a first distance and the gap between the first conductor and the second conductor in the second material is a second distance such that the impedance is substantially constant along the length of the conductors.
- 43. The electrical connector as recited in claim 42, wherein the first material comprises air and the second material comprises a polymer.
- 44. The electrical connector as recited in claim 42, wherein the first conductor comprises a first edge along the length of the first conductor, the second conductor comprises a second edge along the length of the conductor, and a gap between the first edge and the second edge is substantially constant.
- 45. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first and second conductor culminate in a blade.
- 46. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein the first and second conductor culminate in two single beam contacts.
- 47. The electrical connector as recited in claim 28, wherein each of the first and second conductors enter the connector at a first plane and exit the connector at a second plane substantially orthogonal to the second plane.
- 48. An electrical connector comprising:
a first section comprising:
a first conductor having a first length; and a second conductor having a second length, the impedance between the first and second conductor being substantially constant along the first and second length; and a second section comprising:
a third conductor having a third length and adapted to receive a portion of the first conductor; and a fourth conductor having a fourth length and adapted to receive a portion of the second conductor, the impedance between the third and fourth conductor being substantially constant along the third and fourth length, wherein electrical characteristics of the connector that exist while the conductors are fully mated are maintained when the conductors are partially unmated.
- 49. The electrical connector as recited in claim 48 wherein the first and second conductor culminates in a blade and the third and fourth conductor each culminate in two single beam contacts for receiving the blades of the first and second conductors, respectively.
- 50. An electrical connector comprising:
a first contact column having a first differential signal pair; and a second contact column having a second differential signal pair adjacent to the first differential signal pair; wherein the first column is offset from the second column such that cross talk between the first and second differential signal pairs is limited as a result of the offset.
- 51. The electrical connector of claim 50 further comprising:
a first ground contact positioned at a first end of the first contact column and a second ground contact positioned at a second end of the second contact column, wherein the second end of the second contact column is opposite the first end of the first contact column.
- 52. The electrical connector of claim 50 wherein the connector is a right angle connector.
- 53. The electrical connector of claim 50 wherein the connector is a vertical connector.
- 54. The electrical connector of claim 50 further comprising:
a lead frame, each lead frame containing one column of differential signal pairs and ground contacts.
- 55. The electrical connector of claim 50 wherein the connector is adapted to pass signals above 1 Gb/s.
- 56. The connector of claim 50 wherein the first differential signal pair has a gap having a gap width and the aspect ratio of column pitch to gap width is greater than about five.
- 57. The connector of claim 50 wherein the offset between adjacent columns varies along the length of the differential pair.
- 58. The connector of claim 50 wherein the offset is about 1.3 mm.
- 59. The connector of claim 50 wherein said connector housing further comprises separable plug and receptacle housings.
- 60. The connector of claim 50 wherein no shields are positioned between said columns.
- 61. The connector of claim 50 wherein no grounds are positioned between said columns.
- 62. The connector of claim 50, further comprising ground contacts at the top and bottom of at least one of said columns.
- 63. An electrical connector comprising:
a plug comprising:
a plurality of columns of differential contact pairs disposed within the plug, each differential contact pair including a first signal contact for transmitting a signal having a first polarity and a second signal contact for transmitting a signal having a second polarity; and a plurality of ground contacts wherein a ground contact is disposed between each differential contact pair within each column of differential contact pairs; wherein each column of differential contact pairs and ground contacts is offset from an adjacent column such that multi-active cross talk is reduced with respect to each differential contact pair; and a receptacle electrically connected to the plug comprising:
a second plurality of columns of differential contact pairs disposed within the receptacle, each differential contact pair including a first signal contact for transmitting a signal having a first polarity and a second signal contact for transmitting a signal having a second polarity; and a second plurality of ground contacts wherein a ground contact is disposed between each differential contact pair within each second plurality of columns of differential contact pairs; wherein each second column of differential contact pairs and ground contacts is offset from an adjacent column such that multi-active cross talk is reduced with respect to each differential contact pair.
- 64. The connector of claim 63 wherein the receptacle is adapted to connect to a cable.
- 65. A plug for an electrical connector comprising:
a plurality of lead frames, each said lead frame comprising: a column of contacts arranged as:
a plurality of differential contact pairs having terminal pins at both ends thereof, each differential contact pair including a first signal contact for transmitting a signal having a first polarity and a second signal contact for transmitting a signal having a second polarity; and a plurality of ground contacts having ground pins at both ends thereof, wherein a ground contact is disposed between each differential contact pair; wherein said differential contact pairs and ground contacts of each said column are offset from those of an adjacent column such that multi-active cross talk is reduced with respect to each differential contact pair.
- 66. The plug of claim 65 wherein no shields are positioned between said lead frames.
- 67. The plug of claim 66 wherein no grounds are positioned between said lead frames.
- 68. The plug of claim 65 wherein at least one of said columns of contacts includes a ground contact at the top and bottom of said column.
- 69. An electrical connector comprising:
a plurality of lead frames, each said lead frame comprising: a column of contacts arranged as:
a plurality of differential contact pairs having terminal pins at both ends thereof, each differential contact pair including a first signal contact for transmitting a signal having a first polarity and a second signal contact for transmitting a signal having a second polarity, opposite from said first polarity; and wherein said differential contact pairs of each said column are offset from those of an adjacent column such that multi-active cross talk is reduced with respect to each differential contact pair.
- 70. The plug of claim 69 wherein no shields are positioned between said lead frames.
- 71. The plug of claim 70 wherein no grounds are positioned between said lead frames.
- 72. The plug of claim 69 wherein the offset between different columns varies across all the columns of the plug.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/990,794, filed Nov. 14, 2001, and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/155,786, filed May 24, 2002, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Continuation in Parts (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09990794 |
Nov 2001 |
US |
Child |
10294966 |
Nov 2002 |
US |
Parent |
10155786 |
May 2002 |
US |
Child |
10294966 |
Nov 2002 |
US |