Cable assembly having a substrate with multiple passive filtering devices between two sections of the cable assembly

1. A cable assembly comprising:

multiple electrical cables arranged in a first cable section and a second cable section, each electrical cable having a pair of signal conductors configured to convey differential signals, each of the first cable section and the second cable section having a connector end and a device end; and

a filtering module including a substrate and multiple passive filtering devices mounted on the substrate, the filtering module disposed between the first cable section and the second cable section along a length of the cable assembly and mechanically connected to the respective device ends of the first and second cable sections, the passive filtering devices electrically connected to the signal conductors of the electrical cables,

wherein the connector ends of the first and second cable sections are configured to be electrically connected to corresponding first and second connectors, and the filtering module is configured to filter electrical signals conveyed along the electrical cables between the first and second connectors.

2. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first cable section includes multiple electrical cables arranged in a row, and the second cable section includes multiple electrical cables arranged in a row.

3. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the electrical cables are ribbon cables and the first and second cable sections each include at least one of the ribbon cables.

4. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a circuit board having a first side, the first side including first and second rows of contact pads, the passive filtering devices mounted to the first side between the first and second rows of the contact pads, the signal conductors of the first cable section being terminated to the contact pads in the first row and the signal conductors of the second cable section being terminated to the contact pads in the second row.

5. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein a first side of the substrate includes a raised platform located between two recessed areas, the electrical cables including jacket-removed segments and exposed end segments that extend from the jacket-removed segments to respective ends of the electrical cables, the electrical cables including only the signal conductors along the exposed end segments, the signal conductors along the exposed end segments being soldered to contact pads on the raised platform, the jacket-removed segments engaging the recessed areas of the substrate.

6. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the filtering module includes two ground bus bars, each ground bus bar extending across the device end of a different one of the first and second cable sections and mechanically engaging one or more of conductive shield layers or ground drain wires of the electrical cables.

7. The cable assembly of claim 6 , wherein the ground bus bars each include a panel and multiple legs that extend from the respective panel, the panels of the ground bus bars engaging the electrical cables, the multiple legs being mechanically mounted to and electrically connected to a grounding circuit of the substrate of the filtering module.

8. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein each passive filtering device is located along a different conductive signal line through the substrate, each conductive signal line extending between and electrically connecting one of the signal conductors of the first cable section to one of the signal conductors of the second cable section.

9. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the passive filtering devices of the filtering module are configured to allow electrical signals in a frequency range of interest to be conveyed between the first cable section and the second cable section and filter out frequencies outside of the frequency range of interest.

10. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the passive filtering devices are capacitors.

11. The cable assembly of claim 1 , wherein the filtering module includes a conductive cover that extends above a first side of the substrate that faces the conductive cover, wherein the passive filtering devices and the device ends of the first and second cable sections are disposed between the first side of the substrate and the conductive cover.

12. The cable assembly of claim 11 , wherein the conductive cover defines a top of the filtering module, and the filtering module includes a dielectric filler material that defines a bottom of the filtering module, the dielectric filler material engaging each of the conductive cover, a second side of the substrate that is opposite to the first side, and the electrical cables at the device ends of the first and second cable sections.

13. A connector system comprising:

first and second electrical connectors, each of the first and second electrical connectors having a mating end and a mounting end; and

multiple cable assemblies electrically connected to and extending between the respective mounting ends of the first and second electrical connectors, the cable assemblies arranged in a stack, each of the cable assemblies comprising:

a filtering module including a substrate and multiple passive filtering devices mounted on the substrate;

a first cable section of one or more electrical cables, the first cable section having a connector end coupled to the mounting end of the first electrical connector and a device end coupled to the filtering module; and

a second cable section of one or more electrical cables, the second cable section having a connector end coupled to the mounting end of the second electrical connector and a device end coupled to the filtering module,

wherein the filtering module of each cable assembly is configured to filter electrical signals conveyed along the electrical cables of the first and second cable sections between the first and second connectors.

14. The connector system of claim 13 , wherein each of the electrical cables in the first and second cable sections has a pair of signal conductors configured to convey differential signals, the passive filtering devices of the filtering module are arranged in pairs in-line with corresponding pairs of the signal conductors.

15. The connector system of claim 13 , wherein the one or more electrical cables of the first cable section and the second cable section in each cable assembly are arranged along a row, and the multiple cable assemblies are stacked adjacent to one another along a stack axis that is perpendicular to the rows of electrical cables in the individual cable assemblies.

16. The connector system of claim 13 , wherein the passive filtering devices of the filtering module in each cable assembly are configured to allow electrical signals in a frequency range of interest to be conveyed between the first cable section and the second cable section and filter out frequencies outside of the frequency range of interest.

17. The connector system of claim 13 , wherein the substrate of the filtering module in each cable assembly is a circuit board having a first side, the first side including first and second rows of contact pads, the passive filtering devices mounted to the first side between the first and second rows of the contact pads, the signal conductors of the first cable section being terminated to the contact pads in the first row and the signal conductors of the second cable section being terminated to the contact pads in the second row.

18. A cable assembly comprising:

a first electrical cable and a second electrical cable that each has multiple signal conductors; and

a filtering module disposed between the first electrical cable and the second electrical cable, the filtering module including a circuit board and multiple passive filtering devices, at least some of the passive filtering devices terminated to device contact pads on a first side of the circuit board, the circuit board extending between a first cable end and a second cable end that is opposite to the first cable end, the circuit board including a first array of signal contact pads located between the passive filtering devices and the first cable end along the first side, the circuit board including a second array of signal contact pads located between the passive filtering devices and the second cable end along the first side, the circuit board including conductive circuit elements that provide conductive signal paths between the signal contact pads and the device contact pads to which the passive filtering devices are terminated,

wherein the signal conductors of the first electrical cable are terminated to the signal contact pads in the first array, and the signal conductors of the second electrical cable are terminated to the signal contact pads in the second array, and

wherein the passive filtering devices of the filtering module are configured to filter electrical signals conveyed along the signal conductors of the first and second electrical cables.

19. The cable assembly of claim 18 , wherein the first side of the circuit board includes a raised platform located between two recessed areas, the first and second arrays of the signal contact pads disposed on the raised platform, the first and second electrical cables including jacket-removed segments and exposed end segments that extend from the jacket-removed segments to respective ends of the first and second electrical cables, the jacket-removed segments engaging the recessed areas of the circuit board.

20. The cable assembly of claim 18 , wherein the first and second electrical cables are twin-axial cables, each of the twin-axial cables including a pair of the signal conductors configured to convey differential signals.