Modular staggered multi-row electrical connector

Claim 1

A dual row, modular, mass terminatable electrical connector for connecting a dual row array of pins to insulated wire conductors, said connector including a housing made of insulative material having parallel top and bottom rows of elongated terminal receiving cavities, each cavity generally defined between two spaced-apart sidewalls, a top wall and a bottom wall, each cavity having a forward pin receiving opening and a rear wire receiving opening, and a plurality of identical terminals, one mounted with the same orientation in each cavity, and each terminal having a forward pin engaging portion and a rear insulation displacement slot for receiving an insulated conductor therein, displacing the insulation and electrically contacting the conductor, the improvement comprising: the cavities of the top row being staggered with respect to the cavities of the bottom row; the sidewalls of adjacent cavities of the top and bottom rows being spaced-apart; a slot formed in each of the top walls of the cavities of the top and bottom rows, each slot extending from the wire receiving opening toward the forward end to expose the insulation displacement slot, whereby the insulation displacement slots of the terminals received in the bottom row cavities are accessible between the sidewalls of adjacent top row cavities so that all of the terminals of both rows can be mass terminated from one direction; and said housing having a plurality of modules, each module including at least one top row cavity and at least one bottom row cavity and selectively removable module connecting members joining predetermined adjacent cavity sidewalls for connecting a plurality of modules together, whereby a desired number of modules may be removed from the housing leaving a connector having the same number of pin receiving opeings as there are pins in a given pin array.