Impedance and inductance control in electrical connectors and including reduced crosstalk

摘要

A method and structure of an electrical connector is provided for tuning the impedance of the connector according to a given impedance of an electrical circuit in which the connector is interconnected. The connector includes a dielectric housing having a receptacle for receiving a complementary electrical component. A plurality of terminals are mounted on the housing. The terminals include body portions located in the housing and contact portions for engaging respective contacts on the electrical component. The body portions include mechanically non-functional sections of a given area which effect a given capacitance. The mechanically non-functional sections are selectively trimmable to selectively vary the area thereof and thereby vary the capacitance of the terminals and, therefore, the impedance of the connector to match the given impedance of the electrical circuit. The connector includes a plurality of signal terminals and a plurality of ground terminals. The signal terminals and ground terminals are in an alternating array lengthwise along the receptacle, with each signal terminal being aligned with a ground terminals on opposite transverse sides of the receptacle, and the ground terminals have significantly larger transverse areas than the signal terminals. The ground terminals have at least two points of contact for engaging a common ground circuit on the printed circuit board for reducing the inductance between a particular ground terminal and its respective circuit trace.