Electrical connector for high density ribbon cable

Claim 1

In an electrical connector for insulation displacing termination of ribbon cable having conductors on predetermined close centerline spacing, including a dielectric housing having a mating face, an opposed cable-receiving face and a plurality of terminal-receiving passages extending between the faces, a plurality of terminals received in the passages, each terminal including a mating portion toward said mating face and a slotted U-shaped insulation displacement portion toward the cable-receiving face, the insulation displacement portions of the terminals being arranged staggered in at leas two rows, and a dielectric cover for forcing the conductors into the U-shaped insulation displacement portions and embracing the cable between the cover and the cable-receiving face of the housing, the cover including surface means including a plurality of closely spaced: side-by-side troughs for registering with the conductors of said ribbon cable for engaging the cable and holes in the surface means for receiving the U-shaped insulation displacement portions of the terminals, wherein at least some of the troughs intersect said holes in the cover, wherein the improvement comprises: recess means in the surface means of the cover in areas adjacent the holes which receive the insulation displacement portions of the terminals, whereby the conductors on opposite sides of any given conductor being terminated can float into said areas as a respective insulation displacement portion is forced into termination with the given conductor, and wherein at least some of the troughs extend into recess means only slightly beyond one edge of the respective hole which the respective trough intersects.