Compact connector system
A connector system is disclosed that is configured to provide terminals at a 0.5 mm pitch with providing for high data rates of 10 Gbps or more. In an embodiment, a 4X connector can be provided that is about the size of a convention SFP connector while still supporting relatively high data rates. This connector can be stacked to provide additional density.
1. A connector, comprising:
a housing supporting a card slot with a first side and a second side;
a wafer set supported by the housing, each wafer set including a first wafer and a second wafer that are adjacent, each wafer supporting a first terminal and a second terminal, each of the terminals having a contact, a tail and a body portion extending therebetween, the tails having a press-fit configuration, wherein the contacts of the first terminals are positioned on the first side and the contacts of the second terminals are positioned on the second side, wherein the first terminals form a first differential pair and the second terminals form a second differential pair, the bodies of the terminals that form the differential pairs extending in substantial alignment from the contacts to the tails;
a first shield plate and a second shield plate positioned on opposing sides of the wafer set, the first and second shield plates providing ground tails and ground contacts, the ground contacts configured to be positioned adjacent the signal contacts provided by the wafer set so as to form a ground, signal, signal, ground configuration of the contacts in the card slot; and
wherein the wafer set is a first wafer set, the connector further including a second wafer set configured like the first wafer set, the second wafer set have a third shield plate on a first side and a fourth shield plate on a second side, wherein the second shield plate and the third shield plate are adjacent each other so as to provide a ground, signal, signal, ground, ground, signal, signal, ground arrangement of contacts in a row in the card slot, and wherein an air gap is provided between the second shield plate and the third shield plate.
2. The connector of claim 1 , wherein the shields are commoned along a bottom edge.
3. The connector of claim 1 , wherein each of the differential pairs are configured to support a data rate of 10 Gbps in a non-return to zero (NRZ) encoding.
4. The connector of claim 1 , wherein the tails of the first shield plate are positioned forward of the signal terminals and the tail of the second shield plate side positioned rearward of the signal terminals so that the ground, signal, signal, ground tail arrangement is along an angled line.
5. The connector of claim 1 , wherein each of the tails of the signal terminals that form the corresponding differential pair diverge so that they are spaced apart in a first direction and wherein each of the two ground shields that are positioned on opposite sides of the two signal wafers each include a tail associated with each differential pair so that the two ground shields provide a pair of tails associated with each differential pair.
6. The connector of claim 1 , wherein the contacts in the card slot are on a 0.5 mm pitch.
7. A connector, comprising:
a housing with a card slot, the card slot having a first side and a second side;
a wafer set supported by the housing, the wafer set having a first and second wafer, each of the first and second wafers including a first terminal with a contact, a tail and a body extending therebetween, the contacts being positioned in the card slot on the first side, wherein the first terminals are aligned with each other and are configured to provide a first differential pair, the first terminals being configured to be coupled together in a broad-side manner;
a first shield plate on a first side of the wafer set, the first shield plate having a first ground terminal formed in the shield plate, the first ground terminal aligned with the first differential pair and having a ground contact and a first ground tail; and
a second shield plate on a second side of the wafer set, the second shield plate having a second ground terminal formed in the shield plate, the second ground terminal aligned with the first differential pair and having a ground contact and a second ground tail, wherein the connector includes a second card slot and four wafer sets, each wafer set supporting four differential pairs and including a first and second shield plate provided on opposite sides of the wafer set, wherein the connector includes a perimeter defined by its tails and the connector is configured to provide back routing on four layers without requiring traces to extend beyond the perimeter.
8. The connector of claim 7 , wherein the first differential pair is configured to support a data rate of 10 Gbps in a non-return to zero (NRZ) encoding.
9. The connector of claim 8 , wherein the terminals in the card slot are on a 0.5 mm pitch.
10. A connector, comprising:
a housing with a card slot, the card slot having a first side and a second side;
a wafer set supported by the housing, the wafer set having a first and second wafer, each of the first and second wafers including a first terminal with a contact, a tail and a body extending therebetween, the contacts being positioned in the card slot on the first side, wherein the first terminals are aligned with each other and are configured to provide a first differential pair, the first terminals being configured to be coupled together in a broad-side manner;
a first shield plate on a first side of the wafer set, the first shield plate having a first ground terminal formed in the shield plate, the first ground terminal aligned with the first differential pair and having a ground contact and a first ground tail; and
a second shield plate on a second side of the wafer set, the second shield plate having a second ground terminal formed in the shield plate, the second ground terminal aligned with the first differential pair and having a ground contact and a second ground tail, wherein ground contacts extend a first distance into the card slot and the signal terminals extend a second distance into the card slot, the first and second distance being different.
11. The connector of claim 7 , further comprising a common bar, the common bar extending between the tails that form the differential pair and electrically coupling the first shield plate to the second shield plate.
12. The connector of claim 7 , wherein the terminals in the card slots are on a 0.5 mm pitch.
13. The connector of claim 7 wherein the first ground tail, the two signal tails and the second ground tail are configured to be press-fit into vias on a supporting circuit board and are aligned so that in operation an imaginary line intersects four vias configured to receive the tails, wherein the tails are in a ground, signal, signal, ground configuration.
14. A connector system comprising:
a connector as defined by claim 7 ; and
a circuit board having a plurality of vias arranged in rows.
15. The connector system of claim 14 , wherein the connector includes a common bar that electrically connects the first shield plate to the second shield plate.