Patent ID: 8485831

Claim:
A wafer assembly comprising means for connecting at least two electronic circuit boards, at any location along said circuit boards, said wafer assembly means for connecting comprising a header assembly comprising a header base containing a plurality of pin assemblies, said header assembly pin assemblies adapted to contact a first electronic circuit board; a receptacle assembly, said receptacle assembly comprising a top base element, a bottom base element and a plurality of wafer assemblies, said top base element having contacts adapted to contact said pin assemblies in said header assembly, and said bottom base element having contacts adapted to contact pads on a second circuit board each said wafer assembly comprising a solid flexible printed circuit card connector substrate having edges defining a shape of said solid flexible connector substrate and having a thickness between about 0.1 mm and about 0.5 mm, and at least one conductive layer in said solid flexible connector substrate containing signal layers extending from a first edge of said solid flexible substrate to a second edge of said solid flexible substrate; a return current path ground means in said solid flexible connector substrate for providing a constant impedance and effective shielding between said signal conductors; means for contacting said signal layers to each of said two electronic circuit boards, which electronic circuit boards are in planes substantially parallel to each other, said wafer assembly means forming a tall, flexible mezzanine connector which provides sufficient freedom of movement to account for mechanical tolerances over large system boards while concurrently providing sufficiently high and varied mezzanine mounting height options that system boards can be connected while containing relatively high and large complexes of components.