Patent ID: 8342888

Claim:
A connector assembly for use in high speed applications, comprising: an insulative housing having a plurality of passages, the passages being arranged in columns and rows; at least one connector unit disposed in the housing, the connector unit including an insulative support frame supporting two columns of conductive terminals in spaced-apart fashion, the support frame including a base member extending along a mounting face of the connector unit and a front member extending at an angle to the base member, the front member extending along a rear of the housing; the terminals including tail portions for mounting to a circuit board, contact portions for mating with an opposing connector and body portions interconnecting the terminal tail and contact portions together, the terminals being divided into sets of differential signal terminal pairs and associated ground terminals, the differential signal terminals pairs being aligned edge-to-edge within each of the two columns, the differential signal terminal pairs being separated from each other within each column by single ground terminals, wherein the ground terminal in each of the two columns faces a differential signal terminal pair in the other of the two columns, each of the ground terminals having a first width that is substantially greater than a second width associated with the differential signal terminal pair the ground terminal faces, the edges of the ground terminal in adjacent columns overlapping each other so that the ground terminals cooperatively act electrically as a single ground within each of the connector units; the ground terminals in one column are electrically connected to at least one ground terminal in the other column.