Patent ID: 7731537

Claim:
A connector comprising: an insulative cover member, the cover member including a front mating face and an open rear face; a plurality of connector units coupled to the cover member, each connector unit including an insulative support frame supporting a plurality of conductive terminals in two, spaced-apart columns of terminals, the support frame including a plurality of spoke members extending radially within the support frame from a front corner of the frame, the support frame further being formed from first and second support frame halves, separate from the cover member which holds the connector units, a single column of the terminals being supported by each of the first and second support frame halves, the first and second support frame halves spacing the two terminal columns apart from each other, widthwise, within each of the connector units; each of 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 including distinct signal terminals and ground shield terminals, the signal terminals being aligned edge-to-edge to form differential signal terminal pairs within their respective terminal body portions within each of the two columns, the differential signal terminal pairs being separated from each other within a column by a single ground shield terminal, the ground shield terminals being alternatingly spaced apart within the columns such that the ground shield terminals in each column are spaced apart from and face a differential signal terminal pair of an opposing column, each of said ground shield terminals being wider than the differential signal terminal pair within the connector unit; and respective columns of the terminals being attached to the connector unit along the spoke members of respective first and second support frame halves, the ground shield terminals of the first support frame half including open windows formed in their body portions, the windows being filled with material of the spoke members of one of the first support frame half for attachment to the differential signal pairs of terminals of the second support frame half facing the ground shield terminals of the first support frame half being narrowed in their widths proximate to the windows so as to increase edge-to-edge spacing between the differential signal terminal pair in order to decrease broadside coupling between the differential signal terminal pairs and the ground shield terminals and to control edge coupling between the differential signal terminal pair.