Patent attributes
An electrical connector suitable for use in an adapter. The connector includes conductive elements that can be routed in three dimensions to facilitate interconnections between connectors used to form an adapter. Simplified construction is achieved through use of connector wafers, each of which route signals in a plane such that when the wafers are organized side-by-side in a connector, signals may be routed through multiple parallel planes. Some of the wafers may include holes through which conductive elements from other wafers may pass, to that signal may be routed in a third dimension, perpendicular to the parallel planes. The adapter may be mounted on a printed circuit board or other substrate with active components. Signals may pass through the adapter in one of the parallel planes or may be routed for conditioning in the active components.
