Patent ID: 7508681

Claim:
A printed circuit board having a surface providing a mating interface to which is electrically connected an electrical connector having signal conductors and ground conductors, the printed circuit board comprising: a plurality of stacked dielectric layers, with a conductor disposed on at least one of the plurality of dielectric layers; the mating interface including: a plurality of conductive vias aligned in a plurality of rows, the plurality of conductive vias extending through at least a portion of the plurality of dielectric layers, at least one of the plurality of conductive vias intersecting the conductor; and the plurality of conductive vias including differential pairs of signal conductive vias and ground conductor conductive vias, for each of the plurality of rows of the conductive vias, the conductive vias are positioned relative to one another so that for each differential pair of signal conductive vias, there are ground conductive vias adjacent either side of the differential pair of signal conductive vias to form a repeating pattern along the row of conductive vias, wherein the repeating pattern comprises ground conductor conductive via, differential pair of signal conductor conductive vias, ground conductor conductive via.