Abstract: A modular high speed, high density electrical connector configurable for use in multiple configurations, including a direct attach orthogonal configuration. The connector is assembled with modules that include shielded pairs of signal conductors with mating ends that are rotated approximately 45 degrees with respect to intermediate portions of the signal conductors. The connector may have a mating interface with receptacles in one connector and pins in the mating connector. The pins may be small diameter and may be implemented with superelastic wires so as to resist damage despite having very small effective diameter. A compact mating interface resulting from small diameter mating contact portions may enable other portions of the connector, including the shielding surrounding the signal conductors to be smaller, which may raise the resonant frequency of the connector and extend its bandwidth.

Abstract: An I/O connector assembly configured for making cabled connections to an interior portion of a printed circuit board for signals passing through the connector. The assembly may include a receptacle subassembly and a low-speed subassembly. The external mating interface of the connector may be provided by the receptacle subassembly. Some of the conductive elements within the receptacle subassembly may terminate cables while others may be coupled to the low-speed subassembly at an internal, separable interface. The low-speed subassembly may be mounted to a PCB, including through the use of solder, and cabled connections may be separately added or removed, enabling the low-speed subassembly to be mounted using heat that might damage the cables or using a semi-permanent mounting technology, such as pressfit that might be damaged if removed once or a few times. Yet, the cables and/or cable terminations may be attached or detached for repair or replacement multiple times.

Abstract: A printed circuit board includes a plurality of layers including attachment layers and routing layers; and via patterns formed in the plurality of layers, each of the via patterns including first and second signal vias forming a differential signal pair, the first and second signal vias extending through at least the attachment layers; ground vias extending through at least the attachment layers, the ground vias including ground conductors; and shadow vias located adjacent to each of the first and second signal vias, wherein the shadow vias are free of conductive material in the attachment layers. The printed circuit board may further include slot vias extending through the attachment layers and located between via patterns.

Abstract: A compact interposer with shields and multiple electrical contacts held in a housing. Each shield is compact, being disposed in a vertical plane perpendicular to the top and bottom surfaces of the housing and between two adjacent electrical contacts respectively on opposing sides of the shield. The shield includes a plurality of shield contacts extending above the top surface and/or below the bottom surface of the housing. During operation, the shield is configured to reduce crosstalk between high-speed signals carried in the electrical contacts on opposing sides of the shield. Optionally, when in a compressed state, the shield contact may be configured to contact the shield body to shunt a distal end of the shield contact. The shield body and shield contacts may be stamped from the same sheet of metal. The shield contacts may have properties that provide reliable operation of the interposer.

Abstract: Embodiments herein include a connector coupling arranged to mate and/or unmate first and second connectors. The connector coupling includes a first collar having one or more locking members, a second collar arranged to receive the first collar, the second collar being rotatable relative to the first collar, and a locking mechanism. The connector coupling is moveable in a mating direction to mate the first and second connectors and an unmating direction to unmate the connectors. The locking mechanism is disengaged when the connector coupling is moved in a mating direction. For example, the locking mechanism may be moveable from a first engaged position to a first disengaged position when the connector coupling is moved in the mating direction. As another example, the locking mechanism may remain disengaged until the connectors are fully mated.

Abstract: A cable connector with improved performance and ease of use. The connector has staggered ports to reduce crosstalk and to prevent incorrect insertion of a plug into a receptacle. The plug may be constructed with subassemblies, each of which has a lossy central portion. Conductive members embedded within an insulative housing of the subassemblies may be used to electrically connect ground conductors within the subassemblies. Further, the connector may have a quick connect locking screw that can be engaged by pressing on the screw, but requires rotation of the screw to remove. Additionally, a ferrule may be used in making a mechanical connection between a cable bundle and a plug and making an electrical connection between a braid of the cable bundle and a conductive shell of the plug. The ferrule may be in multiple pieces for easy attachment while precluding deformation of the cable, which disrupts electrical performance.

Abstract: A printed circuit board includes a plurality of layers including attachment layers and routing layers; and via patterns formed in the plurality of layers, each of the via patterns including first and second signal vias forming a differential signal pair, the first and second signal vias extending through at least the attachment layers; ground vias extending through at least the attachment layers, the ground vias including ground conductors; and shadow vias located adjacent to each of the first and second signal vias, wherein the shadow vias are free of conductive material in the attachment layers. The printed circuit board may further include slot vias extending through the attachment layers and located between via patterns.

Abstract: A low-profile mezzanine connector. The connector is simple to manufacture and can be reliably formed even with a stack height of 4 mm or less yet has high signal integrity. The connector has a field of identically shaped contacts that are functionally differentiated through features of the housing, including lossy material in patches with narrower projections electrically coupled to contacts designated as ground contacts. The mating portions of the contacts are adjacent a wall of the housing, which is tapered to increase the effective dielectric constant in the vicinity of the signal contacts. Each contact may have a hole in it to engage an insertion tool to enable repeatable and stable insertion of the contacts into a housing. The footprint for mounting the connector to a PCB may include signal vias offset from the mounting pads for signal contacts.

Abstract: A modular high speed, high density electrical connector configurable for use in multiple configurations, including a direct attach orthogonal configuration. The connector is assembled with modules that include shielded pairs of signal conductors with mating ends that are rotated approximately 45 degrees with respect to intermediate portions of the signal conductors. The connector may have a mating interface with receptacles in one connector and pins in the mating connector. The pins may be small diameter and may be implemented with superelastic wires so as to resist damage despite having very small effective diameter. A compact mating interface resulting from small diameter mating contact portions may enable other portions of the connector, including the shielding surrounding the signal conductors to be smaller, which may raise the resonant frequency of the connector and extend its bandwidth.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for securing a bundle of wires to a surface via a clamp assembly is disclosed. The assembly includes a clamp, such as a P-clamp, that may be mounted to a support before installing a bundle of wires. The clamp includes first and second clamp members that cooperate to form an opening through which the wire bundle extends. The first and second clamp members may be engaged with and disengaged from one another without a tool. In some embodiments, the P-clamp includes a snap-in mechanism with a clip and a corresponding housing. In some embodiments, the clamp includes an inner cushion that allows the clamp to accommodate a range of wire bundle diameters.

Abstract: A sealed electrical connector that includes an interface component that has housing with a front end and an opposite rear end, the front end has an open end face for receiving a mating connector, and the rear end for receiving cable. The housing has contacts. A terminal-position-assurance feature is coupled to the contacts and to the housing. The terminal-position-assurance feature may be located at a first axial position along the longitudinal axis of the housing which is a first distance from the open end face of the housing. An interface seal surrounds an outer portion of the housing. The interface seal is located on the housing at a second axial position along the longitudinal axis of the housing which is a second distance from the open end face of the housing. The second distance is greater than the first distance.

Abstract: An electrical socket and method of making an electrical socket. The socket includes a body that has spaced contact beams extending between the first and second ends and an inner receiving area for accepting a mating pin. The contact beams are configured for aligning into a hyperbolic geometry. Each of the contact beams has a middle section between first and second end sections. Each middle section has a pre-formed contour that defines a cross-section of each contact beam that defines a fully radiused, inner contact area without sharp edges such that each middle section extends further into the inner receiving area than the first and second end sections when the contact beams are aligned into the hyperbolic geometry and such that the fully radiused, inner contact areas of the contact beams are positioned for contact with the mating pin when inserted into the inner receiving area of the socket body.

Abstract: A cable assembly comprising a connector with a termination that enables high density and high signal integrity. Shields of cables are terminated to a paddle card via a conductive structure attached to a surface of the paddle card. The signal conductors of the cables are terminated to pads on the paddle card that are exposed within openings of the conductive structure. Such a structure creates a ground structure per cable that provides low insertion loss and low crosstalk, even when multiple cables are aligned side by side and terminated in one or more rows. The cables may be drainless, enabling a large number of cables, such as eight cables, to be packed within the width of a paddle card specified in high density standards such as QSFP-DD or OSFP. The cables may nonetheless have large diameter signal conductors, enabling 2.5 or 3 meter assemblies with less than 17 dB insertion loss.

Abstract: A contact member includes, an outer conductor including a mating interface section that includes a front end of the outer conductor, a termination section including a rear end of the outer conductor, and a middle section therebetween joining the mating interface and termination sections; an inner conductor received in the mating interface section; and a protective insulator including a main portion received in the mating interface section of the outer conductor and supporting the inner conductor and including an end portion configured for closed entry mating. The end portion has an end face extending outside of the front end of the outer conductor.

Abstract: An electrical connector with improved high frequency performance. The connector has conductive elements, forming both signal and ground conductors, that have multiple points of contact distributed along an elongated dimension. The ground conductors may be formed with multiple beams of different length. The signal conductors may be formed with multiple contact regions on a single beam, with different characteristics. Signal conductors may have beams that are jogged to provide both a desired impedance and mating contact pitch. Additionally, electromagnetic radiation, inside and/or outside the connector, may be shaped with an insert electrically connecting multiple ground structures and/or a contact feature coupling ground conductors to a stiffener. The conductive elements in different columns may be shaped differently to reduce crosstalk.

Abstract: A method of interconnecting first and second printed circuit boards using a float connector with a contact assembly that includes installing a first guide member onto the first printed circuit board with the float connector in an open non-compressed position, after installing the first guide member onto the first printed circuit board, installing a second guide member onto the second printed circuit board with the float connector in the open non-compressed position, and compressing the first and second printed circuit boards toward one another to move the float connector from the open non-compressed position to a compressed position until contact ends of the contact assembly of the float connector are exposed outside of the first and second guide members, respectively, thereby electrically connecting the contact ends to the first and second printed circuit boards, respectively, for electrical connection between the first and second printed circuit boards through the float connector.

Abstract: A broadside coupled connector assembly has two sets of conductors, each separate planes. By providing the same path lengths, there is no skew between the conductors of the differential pair and the impedance of those conductors is identical. The conductor sets are formed by embedding the first set of conductors in an insulated housing having a top surface with channels. The second set of conductors is placed within the channels so that no air gaps form between the two sets of conductors. A second insulated housing is filled over the second set of conductors and into the channels to form a completed wafer. The ends of the conductors are received in a blade housing. Differential and ground pairs of blades have one end that extends through the bottom of the housing having a small footprint. An opposite end of the pairs of blades diverge to connect with the wafers.

Abstract: Electrical connectors and methods of making the connectors. The method steps include inserting one or more contacts into a temporary contact holder; removably coupling the contact holder with a connector housing, thereby creating a pour receiving cavity inside of the housing; adding a flowable curable material into the cavity to at least partially fill the cavity and surround at least part of the contacts residing in the connector housing; and removing the contact holder from the connector housing, thereby leaving mating contact ends of the one or more contacts exposed and leaving the mating contact ends set in the ready position for mating with a complementary connector.

Abstract: A modular electrical connector with separately shielded signal conductor pairs. The connector may be assembled from modules, each containing a pair of signal conductors with surrounding partially or fully conductive material. Modules of different sizes may be assembled into wafers, which are then assembled into a connector. Wafers may include lossy material. In some embodiments, shielding members of two mating connectors may each have compliant members along their distal portions, such that, the shielding members engage at points of contact at multiple locations, some of which are adjacent the mating edge of each of the mating shielding members.

Abstract: A printed circuit board includes a plurality of layers including attachment layers and routing layers; and columns of via patterns formed in the plurality of layers, wherein via patterns in adjacent columns are offset in a direction of the columns, each of the via patterns comprising: first and second signal vias forming a differential signal pair, the first and second signal vias extending through at least the attachment layers; and at least one conductive shadow via located between the first and second signal vias of the differential pair. In some embodiments, at least one conductive shadow via is electrically connected to a conductive surface film.