Patent ID: 8568177

Claim:
An electrical connector configured to communicate differential signals, the electrical connector comprising: mating conductors configured to engage contacts of another connector, the mating conductors comprising first and second differential pairs; and a circuit board including a plurality of signal traces and a plurality of associated pairs of terminals, each of the associated pairs including an input terminal and an output terminal that are electrically connected through one of the signal traces of said plurality, the input terminals being electrically connected to corresponding mating conductors, each of the signal traces having a conductive path that is configured to transmit signal current between the associated input and output terminals, the signal traces including first and second signal traces that are associated with the first differential pair of signals and third and fourth signal traces that are associated with the second differential pair of signals; wherein the first, second, and third signal traces are stacked and spaced apart from each other to form a broadside-coupling region, the first, second, and third signal traces extending parallel to one another through the broadside-coupling region for a crosstalk-reducing distance.