Tyco Electronics Corporation

The Whitaker Corporation

Itt Manufacturing Enterprises, Inc.

John Edward Knaub

Lynn Robert Sipe

James Lee Fedder

Timothy Robert Minnick

Chad William Morgan

David Wayne Helster

Douglas Wade Glover

Alex Michael Sharf

Scott Keith Mickievicz

Evan Charles Wickes

Peter Clark O'Donnell

Michael David Herring

Richard Elof Hamner

Robert Paul Nichols

John W Kaufman

George R Defibaugh

Peter Paul Wilson

David Keay Fowler

Adam Douglas Cunningham

Bernadette M Flinchbaugh

Christopher J Schmid

Adrian L Melnyk

Phuc Steve Chau

E Scott Martin

Harold R Paley

George Richard Defibaugh

Chad Williams Morgan

Donald Everett Wood

A wafer assembly of an electrical connector system may include a metal center ground plane and a plurality of plastic ribs overmolded on the metal center ground plane. The plastic ribs may be positioned in a configuration that forms a plurality of electrical contact channels on the metal center ground plane. An array of electrical contacts may be positioned substantially within the plurality of electrical contact channels. In some implementations, the electrical connector system may also include a wafer housing and a header module that include guidance components that align the header module with the wafer housing when the wafer housing mates with the header module. The electrical connector system may also include a power contact that passes through aligned openings in the wafer housing and the header module to provide a power transmission path between the first substrate and the second substrate.

Electrical connector system

An electrical connector system may include a center housing that defines a plurality of first electrical contact channels on a first side face of the center housing and a plurality of second electrical contact channels on a second side face of the center housing. A first array of electrical contacts is positioned substantially within the plurality of first electrical contact channels on the first side face of the center housing. A second array of electrical contacts is positioned substantially within the plurality of second electrical contact channels on the second side face of the center housing. The first array of electrical contacts is paired with a third array of electrical contacts to form a first plurality of differential pairs of electrical contacts. The second array of electrical contacts is paired with a fourth array of electrical contacts to form a second plurality of differential pairs of electrical contacts.

A connector assembly includes an electrical connector having an outer end and a plurality of pins at the outer end. The connector assembly also includes a mating adapter having a mating interface and a mounting interface. The mating interface engages the outer end and the mounting interface is configured to engage a circuit board. The mating adapter has conductors extending between the mating interface and the mounting interface. The conductors receive corresponding pins of the electrical connector. The mating adapter has surface mount elements arranged on the mounting interface that are electrically connected to corresponding conductors and are configured to be terminated to the circuit board to electrically interconnect the electrical connector and the circuit board.

Connector assembly having a mating adapter

High-speed backplane connectors systems for mounting a substrate that are capable of operating at speeds of up to at least 25 Gbps, while in some implementations also providing pin densities of at least 50 pairs of electrical connectors per inch are disclosed. Implementations of the high-speed connector systems may provide ground shields and/or ground structures that substantially encapsulate electrical connector pairs, which may be differential electrical connector pairs, in a three-dimensional manner throughout a backplane footprint, a backplane connector, and a daughtercard footprint. These encapsulating ground shields and/or ground structures prevent undesirable propagation of non-traverse, longitudinal, and higher-order modes when the high-speed backplane connector systems operates at frequencies up to at least 30 GHz.

An electrical connector system may include multiple wafer assemblies configured to engage with a substrate. A ground strip of the electrical connector system may be coupled with a first wafer assembly and a second wafer assembly. The ground strip is configured to engage with the substrate and provide a common ground potential between the first wafer assembly, the second wafer assembly, and the substrate.

An electrical connector system may include a plurality wafer assemblies that engage with a substrate. Each wafer assembly includes a housing that defines a plurality of projections extending from an edge of the housing at a mounting end of the wafer assembly. At least a portion of a projection of the plurality of projections of the housing is dimensioned to fit into a corresponding hole in a substrate when the housing is engaged with the substrate. In some implementations, the projection is positioned on the housing to block a line-of-sight between a first signal substrate engagement element of an array of electrical contacts associated with the housing and a second signal substrate engagement element of the array of electrical contacts.

High-speed backplane connectors systems for mounting a substrate that are capable of operating at speeds of up to at least 25 Gbps, while in some implementations also providing pin densities of at least 50 pairs of electrical connectors per inch are disclosed. Implementations of the high-speed connector systems may provide ground shields and/or other ground structures that substantially encapsulate electrical connector pairs, which may be differential electrical connector pairs, in a three-dimensional manner throughout a backplane footprint, a backplane connector, and a daughtercard footprint. These encapsulating ground shields and/or ground structures prevent undesirable propagation of non-traverse, longitudinal, and higher-order modes when the high-speed backplane connector systems operates at frequencies up to at least 30 GHz.

A connector system includes a connector assembly and a contact organizer. The connector assembly includes a mounting end and a plurality of contacts protruding from the mounting end. The contact organizer includes a top side, a bottom side and a plurality of channels extending between the top and bottom sides. The contact organizer is movable with respect to the connector assembly between a supporting position and a seated position. When the contact organizer is in the supporting position, the contacts at least partially extend through the channels. When the contact organizer is moved to the supporting position, the contact organizer is moved toward the mounting end of the connector assembly until the top side of the contact organizer engages the mounting end.

Contact organizer for an electrical connector

An electrical connector includes a housing defining a connector mating interface. The housing holds a plurality of contact modules that cooperate to define a connector mounting interface. Each contact module contains signal leads and ground leads arranged in an alternating pattern of individual ground leads and pairs of signal leads positioned side-by-side with respect to a thickness of the contact module. The signal and ground leads have respective mating contacts proximate the mating interface and respective mounting contacts proximate the mounting interface. The mating and mounting contacts within each contact module are arranged in one of first and second contact patterns different from the pattern of the signal and ground leads. The mating and mounting contacts in adjacent contact modules are arranged in respective different ones of the first and second contact patterns.

Board-to-board electrical connector

Tails () projecting from an electrical component () that lies on a circuit board surface, are terminated to traces on a multi-layer circuit board () in a manner that minimizes the disadvantages of long through hole soldering and of surface mount techniques. A blind hole is drilled and plated to form a shallow well (). The well is filled with a soldering composition (). A tail () is projected downward into the soldering composition with the extreme tip of the tail lying above the bottom of the hole, and the soldering composition is heated to solder the tail to the hole plating.

Enhanced blind hole termination of pin to PCB

Tails () projecting from an electrical component () that lies on a circuit board surface, are terminated to traces on a multi-layer circuit board () in a manner that minimizes the disadvantages of long through hole soldering and of surface mount techniques. A blind hole is drilled and plated in a first layer () that will become the topmost layer of the stack, to form a shallow well (). The well is filled with a soldering composition (). A tail () is projected downward into the soldering composition, and the soldering composition is heated to solder the tail to the hole plating.

Blind hole termination of pin to pcb

A card reader 20 includes a dielectric housing 22, a plurality of resilient connector elements 70 disposed along the bottom wall 28 of the housing 22 and adapted to establish electrical connection between contact pads 104 of a circuit board 102 and contact pads 96 of a card 90 inserted into a card-receiving slot 40 of the reader 20, a horizontal plate 42 slidably mounted within the housing 22, and an actuator 54 for moving the plate 42. The horizontal plate 42 is proximate the top surface of the housing 22 and is movable upon actuation toward a card 90 inserted into the card receiving slot 40 beneath the plate 42 to exert pressure on and moving the card 90 toward said bottom wall 28 to effect electrical engagement between the contact pads 96 of the card 90 and the resilient connector elements 70 that, in turn, engage the contact pads 104 of the board 102.

Card reader

A system for locking a daughter board (100) in the header (10) of a mother board (14) without involving the daughter board connector (110). A pair of latch members (50) are disposed within latch-receiving cavities (34) of the header at each end and include latching projections that pass through notches (126) along side edges (124) of the daughter board for latching. Pivoting of the latch members (50) occurs by the daughter board (100) pushing on ejector feet (62) to pivot the latch members about cylindrical bosses (66) within cylindrical seats (36) along side walls (40) of cavities (34). Embossments (70) cooperate with detents (38,42) in cavity side walls (40) to retain the latch members in either the open or closed positions. Protruding actuating sections (58) permit latch member pivoting to unlatch from the daughter board, with ejector feet (62) initiating board removal movement.

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Etters, PA, United States of America

John Edward Knaub