IMPEDANCE AND INDUCTANCE CONTROL IN ELECTRICAL CONNECTORS INCLUDING REDUCED CROSSTALK

• Main Authors: SCHEER, DENNIS K, HARWATH, FRANK A, BRUNKER, DAVID L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 17.03.1997
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CURRENT COLLECTORS; ELECTRICITY; LINE CONNECTORS

The invention is teaching an edge connector (10) for a printed circuit board (13) having a mating edge and a plurality of signal and ground contact pads (17a, 17b) adjacent the edge, the connector including an elongated dielectric housing (16) having a board-receiving slot (12) for receiving the mating edge of the printed circuit board, a plurality of signal terminals (28) and a plurality of ground terminals (30) mounted on the housing, the terminals having body portions (32, 48) located in the housing and spring contact portions (34, 50) extending into the slot for contacting respective ones of the contact pads on the printed circuit board, said ground terminals having enlarged area portions (56) being provided in such a way that the ground terminals (30) effectively shadow the signal terminals (28), thereby providing increased electrical isolation of individual signal terminals (28) from other signal terminals (28). Preferably, said signal terminals (28) and ground terminals (30) are positioned in an alternating array along each side of the slot means, with each signal terminal being aligned with a ground terminal or each ground terminal being aligned with a signal terminal on opposite transverse sides of the slot, and the ground terminals having significantly larger transverse areas than the signal terminals.