Patent ID: RE38736

Claim:
An electrical circuit assembly comprising a printed circuit board having a plurality of conductive regions, an electrical connector having an elongated insulated housing with a longitudinal axis, a plurality of generally planar, electrical terminals mounted in said housing, the plane of each electrical terminal being generally perpendicular to said longitudinal axis, and each electrical terminal having at least one board contact extending from said housing for connection to said conductive regions, said board contacts and said conductive regions defining a plurality of conductive paths extending between said circuit board and said connector, said conductive paths being of two types, a first type being signal paths for carrying high frequency signals and a second type being reference paths for carrying ground and power signals, each of said paths including one of said board contacts and one of said conductive regions, said paths being arrayed as follows: said paths being arrayed solely along two opposed inner lines and two opposed outer lines, each said line being generally parallel to the longitudinal axis of said housing; each said path in one of said inner lines being laterally aligned with a path in the other of said inner lines to define pairs of inner paths and each said path in one of said outer lines being laterally aligned with a path in the other of said outer lines to define pairs of outer paths; and said paths of said first type all being positioned along said inner lines and said paths of said second type all being positioned along said outer lines.