Molex Corporation

John C Laurx

Peerouz Amleshi

Vivek Shah

Chien-Lin Wang

Kent E Regnier

David E Dunham

Craig A Bixler

David L Brunker

Neil A Martin

Brian Hauge

Yueh-Ting Chiang

Li Zhuang

Gary Humbert

Teng-Kai Chen

Daniel B McGowan

Augusto P Panella

Michael Rost

Brian P O'Malley

Bratislav Kostic

Timothy Scott Elo

Tom Carlson

Ronald Bradbery

Joe Faia

Pue Xie

Khang Choong Yong

High-speed, hermaphroditic electrical connectors may be connected to form a hermaphroditic connector assembly that uses less space than existing connector assemblies. A housing can provide a first and second engagement feature that are intended to engage each other so that when two such connectors are rotated 180 degrees the engagement features allow two such connectors to mate together. Cables can be connected directly to the terminals so as to provide for improved electrical performance.

High-speed, hermaphroditic connector and connector assemblies

A backplane connector includes a shielded design that has wafers with signal terminals supported as edge-coupled terminal pairs for differential signaling. A ground shield is mounted on each wafer and provides a U-channel that partially shields each terminal pair. An insert can be provided to help connect the ground shield to a U-shield to provide U-shaped shielding structure substantially the entire way from a tail to a contact.

Backplane connector for providing angled connections and system thereof

An electrical connector assembly can include a plug connector mountable to a planar substrate and a receptacle connector configured to receive a plurality of cables and that can mate with the plug connector. The plug connector may include a first inline terminal row and a second inline terminal row exposed on a mounting face to conductively contact the planar substrate. The receptacle connector can include a plurality of terminals having termination ends aligned in common wafer plane that can be conductively terminated with the plurality of cables. The plug connector and the electrical connector are configured to establish electrical channels from the termination ends coplanar with the common wafer plan to the first and second inline terminal rows.

Connector assembly

A connector assembly includes an insulative housing, first and second conductive ground wafers (see e.g.,and) and a plurality of grounding links. The insulative housing has a plurality of conductive signal terminals disposed therein (see e.g.,). The insulative housing has opposite side surfaces and a plurality of openings therein extending between the side surfaces. The second ground wafer is spaced from and parallel to the first ground wafer. The grounding links are electrically connected to one of the ground wafers and extend towards another of the ground wafers and extend through the openings in the housing.

High density receptacle

An electrical connector assembly can include a plug connector and a receptacle connector that can mate together. Conductive communication between the plug and receptacle connectors is established by mating signals terminals and mating ground terminals contained in terminal subassemblies accommodated in each connector. To align and support the signal and ground terminals, the terminals may be part of a terminal wafer and the terminal subassembly can be assembled from one or more wafers. The terminal wafer may include grounding features to improve the electrical characteristics and data transmission through the electrical connector assembly.

The inventors describe various exemplary connectors and connector assemblies that allow for design flexibility and cost savings. Some embodiments of an electrical connector assembly include a housing member having a plurality of outer surfaces. They also include multiple wafers supported by the housing member, each wafer including a plurality of electrically conductive terminals and an insulative support member supporting the electrical terminals, each terminal having a contact configured to electrically connect the terminal to another electrical component. Some embodiments also include a satellite connector disposed along one of the outer surfaces of the housing member, the satellite connector including an insulative satellite housing and a plurality of connections supported by the satellite housing, each connection having a termination section, the termination section being operatively connected to a cable.

Connector system with wafers

A backplane connector includes a shielded design that has wafers with signal terminals supported as edge-coupled terminal pairs for differential signaling. A ground shield is mounted on each wafer and provides a U-channel that partially shields each terminal pair. The wafers omit a ground terminal between adjacent terminal pairs. An insert can be provided to help connect the ground shield to a U-shield to provide U-shaped shielding structure substantially the entire way from a tail to a contact.

Backplane connector omitting ground shields and system using same

A connector system includes a wafer that has a shield that replaces standard ground terminals and an additional isolation shield to provide enhanced electrical isolation. To further improve electrical performance, transmit and receive channels can be provided in separate wafers on one side of connector system with a space or wafer between the transmit and signal wafers. On the other side of the connector system the wafer will have one or two spaces that are either black or filled with terminals that operate at lower frequencies. A conductive insert can provide further isolation intra-wafer.

Selectively shielded connector channel

A connector system is disclosed that can include a first and second connector. The first connector supports a channel terminal that is U-shaped and includes a mating edge. The second connector includes one or more wafers that support signal terminals arranged in an edge-coupled manner. Ground terminals in the one or more wafers are positioned on two sides of a pair of signal terminals and are configured to engage the mating edge of the channel terminal. Each wafer can include a shield mounted on a side of the wafer. The shield can include arms that electrically engage ground terminals.

Connector and connector system having edge-coupled terminals

A connector system includes a connector mounted on a circuit board. The circuit board has deeper backdrilled vias and the connector has modified signal terminal that can mate with the backdrilled vias so as to provide a surprising increase in the performance of signal traces provided in the top layers of the circuit board.

Connector and system with short signal pins

A connector is configured to provide a mating side that includes a 90 degree rotation about two different axis when compared to a mounting. The connector, when mounted on a first circuit board is thus suitable for directly mating to a right-angle connector that is mounted on a second circuit board, the second circuit board at a being at a 90 angle to the first circuit board. The connector can include a shroud that supports a u-shield that partially shields contacts positioned in the mating side.

Growing community of inventors

Aurora, IL, United States of America

John C Laurx