Ground contact module for a contact module stack

Abstract

A ground contact module includes a ground leadframe and a ground dielectric body. The ground leadframe has ground contacts extending between corresponding mating ends and terminating ends with transition portions therebetween. The ground dielectric body holds the ground leadframe and has a low loss layer overmolded over the ground leadframe and encasing the transition portions of the ground contacts. The ground dielectric body has lossy wings received in pockets in the low loss layer. The lossy wings are electrically coupled to corresponding ground contacts and are manufactured from lossy material capable of absorbing electrical resonance propagating through the contact module stack. The lossy wings are separate and discrete from the low loss layer and are attached to the at least one low loss layer in proximity to the corresponding ground contacts. Each lossy wing is electrically coupled to only one of the ground contacts.

Description

technical field [0001] The subject of this article deals with communication connectors in general. Background technique [0002] Some electrical connector systems utilize communication connectors to interconnect various components in the system for data communication. Some known communication connectors have performance problems, especially when transmitting at high data rates. For example, communication connectors often use differential pairs of signal conductors to carry high-speed signals. Ground conductors improve signal integrity. However, the electrical performance of known communication connectors is hampered by noise from crosstalk and return loss when transmitting high data rates. This problem is more problematic for fine pitch high speed data connectors, which are noisy and exhibit higher than desired return loss due to the close proximity of signal and ground contacts. Energy from the ground contacts on either side of the signal pair may reflect in the space b...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, the electrical performance of known communication connectors is hampered by noise from crosstalk and return loss when transmitting high data rates

This problem is more problematic for fine pitch high speed data connectors, which are noisy and exhibit higher than desired return loss due to the close proximity of signal and ground contacts

Energy from the ground contacts on either side of the signal pair can be reflected in the space between the ground contacts, and this noise results in reduced connector performance and throughput

Separation of ground contacts often results in unfavorable resonances supported by the ground contacts at specific frequency bands

The costly approach of using complex geometries for signal and ground contacts proves effective, but can overcomplicate the connector design and may not be practical

Images