Teradyne, Inc.

Amphenol Corporation

David Michael McNamara

Philip T Stokoe

Daniel B Provencher

William E Howard

Mark W Gailus

Thomas S Cohen

Brian Kirk

Edward Gerald Marvin

John Robert Dunham

Sepehr Kiani

Michael Joseph Snyder

Mating interfaces for an electrical connector are provided. In some embodiments, a mating interface comprises: a plurality of conductive elements positioned in a plurality of columns, each of the plurality of conductive elements comprising: a sheet of conductive material formed into a three dimensional structure such that the conductive material is disposed on at least two sides of an opening adapted to receive a mating conductive element; and at least one tab cut in the sheet, the at least one tab comprising a mating contact surface facing the opening and adapted to make contact to the mating conductive element.

Mating interfaces for high speed high density electrical connectors

A two-piece mezzanine connector for high speed, high density signals. One piece of the connector may have conductive elements with beam-shaped mating contacts. The beams may include openings to control mechanical properties while allowing edge to edge spacing between adjacent beams to be selected to provide desired electrical properties. The openings may be teardrop shaped, with a larger width at a distal end of the beams. Beams associated with signal conductors may have openings that are shaped differently from openings of beams associated with ground conductors. For a first connector piece, mating contact regions of signal conductors may be wider than mating contact regions of ground conductors. For a second connector piece adapted to mate with the first connector piece, mating contact regions of signal conductors may be narrower than mating contact regions of ground conductors. These contact shapes may provide float while maintaining a high contact density.

Mezzanine connector

A two-piece mezzanine connector for high speed, high density signals. The connector is assembled from wafers that may be formed of identical wafer halves. The halves may have interior portions that form a channel in which a lossy member may be captured for selectively configuring the connector for high frequency performance. The lossy member may be serpentine, to both provide different spacing relative to signal and ground conductors and to provide compliance to press against ground conductors when captured between wafer halves. Instead of, or in addition to, the lossy member captured between two wafer halves, the wafer halves may each have lossy material overmolded on at least one side, so that an assembled wafer may have lossy material disposed on the outside. The wafers may have dovetail projections that are secured within dovetail channels, forming structural members of the connector.

A footprint of an electronic assembly formed from conductive pads on a surface of a printed circuit board. One or more vias may connect each pad to a conductive structure within the printed circuit board. The footprint may be such that the vias for the pads are aligned along columns, leaving wide routing channels between the columns. The pads may have different shapes. For example, some of the pads may each have two solder attachment regions that are electrically connected to a ground plane, while other pads may each have one solder attachment region that is electrically connected to a signal trace. The solder attachment regions may be arranged in such a pattern that they align with respective contact tails of a connector assembly. A signal path may be formed between a solder attachment region and a corresponding contact tail through a solder ball attached to the contact tail.

A wafer for an electrical connector includes a conductive shield plate, a plurality of signal conductors disposed on the shield plate, and a divider shield. Each of the plurality of signal conductors has at least one contact portion. The divider shield is disposed on the shield plate aligned with the at least one contact portion and is made of conductive metal. The divider shield is separate from and coupled to the shield plate.

Electrical connector with divider shields to minimize crosstalk

An electrical contact including a contact end having a gold-plated surface for receiving a solder ball and edge surfaces adjacent to the gold surface for containing the solder ball on the gold-plated surface. In one embodiment, the contact end is connected to a curved lead and a portion of the contact end adjacent to the curved lead is comprised a less solder-wettable material than gold. A method of fabricating the electrical contact includes plating a metal sheet with a gold stripe and stamping the sheet to provide the contact surface in the gold stripe. Also described is an electrical connector having a plurality of conductive contacts, each having a gold-coated surface for receiving a solder ball and less solder-wettable edge surfaces adjacent to the gold surface.

Electrical solder ball contact

An electrical connector having a plurality of electrical conductors with one portion thereof disposed in a housing and an end of such connector projecting outward from the housing and terminating in a pad disposed perpendicular to the housing disposed portion. The connector is provided adapted for mounting to an ball grid array disposed on a printed circuit board. The pad is coupled to the conductor through a curved interconnect. The interconnect is configured as an inductor to provide a series resonant circuit element for the capacitor effect provided by the pad. The connector has a housing adapted to having therein a plurality of wafer-like modules. Each one of the modules has a dielectric support and an array of signal electrical conductors electrically insulated by portions of the supports. A ground plane electrical conductor is provided. The ground plane conductor is disposed under, and is separated from, portions of the signal electrical conductor by the dielectric member. The signal conductor, ground plane conductor and portion of the dielectric support member therebetween are configured as a microstrip transmission line having a predetermined impedance.

Electrical connector

An electrical connector having a plurality of electrical conductors with one portion thereof disposed in a housing and an end of such connector projecting outward from the housing and terminating in a pad disposed perpendicular to the housing disposed portion. The connector is provided adapted for mounting to an ball grid array disposed on a printed circuit board. The pad is coupled to the conductor through a curved interconnect. The interconnect is configured as an inductor to provide a series resonant circuit element for the capacitor effect provided by the pad. The connector has a housing adapted to having therein a plurality of wafer-like modules. Each one of the modules has a dielectric support and an array of signal electrical conductors electrically insulated by portions of the supports. A ground plane electrical conductor is provided. The ground plane conductor is disposed under, and is separated from, portions of the signal electrical conductor by the dielectric member. The signal conductor, ground plane conductor and portion of the dielectric support member are configured as a microstrip transmission line having a predetermined impedance.

A high speed, high density electrical connector for use with printed circuit boards. The connector is in two pieces with one piece having pins and shield plates and the other having socket type signal contacts and shield plates. The shields have a grounding arrangement which is adapted to control the electromagnetic fields, for various system architectures, simultaneous switching configurations and signal speeds, allowing all of the socket type signal contacts to be used for signal transmission. Additionally, at least one piece of the connector is manufactured from wafers, with each ground plane and signal column injection molded into components which, when combined, form a wafer. This construction allows very close spacing between adjacent columns of signal contacts as well as tightly controlled spacing between the signal contacts and the shields. It also allows for easy and flexible manufacture, such as a connector that has wafers intermixed in a configuration to accommodate single ended, point to point and differential applications.

High speed high density electrical connector

High speed, high density electrical connector

A durable modular connector assembly, particularly for use as a daughter board connector. The connector is made up of connector modules organized on a stiffener. Each connector module includes an alignment block to frictionally engage contact tails. The stiffener is connected to both the base and the alignment block so that the resulting module is rigidly held together and to the stiffener. The connector is therefore less susceptible to damage.

Stiffener for electrical connector

Electrical connectors are provided with shield units each having a plurality of shields joined by a bridge. Preferably the shield units are mounted in a base stiffened by means apertured to carry mounting ear means.

Growing community of inventors

Amherst, NH, United States of America

David Michael McNamara