Performance Characterisation of VAX 9000 MCU Flexible Circuit Interconnect

A contact featured flexible circuit connector was designed to meet the high speed signal performance needs of the VAX 9000 Multi Chip Unit. With contact densities of 200 I/O over approximately 2 square inches, this connector has the highest contact density of any high performance signal connector in any DEC system. This paper discusses the use of a specially designed tester to characterise and measure connector performance against its design goals.