Right angle board to board power connector

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, more specifically, to an electrical connector that maintains a common resistance in each wire of a plurality of wires having different electrical path lengths.

#2. Description of the Prior Art

#FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a prior art device.

#FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a device according to a first embodiment of the invention.

#FIG. 3 is a is a top plan view of a device according to a second embodiment of the invention.

#A preferred embodiment of the invention is now described in detail. Referring to the drawings, like numbers indicate like parts throughout the views. As used in the description herein and throughout the claims, the following terms take the meanings explicitly associated herein, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise: the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on.”

#In one illustrative embodiment 200 of the invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a first electrical component 210, such as a first circuit board, is electrically connected to a second electrical component 212, such as a second circuit board, via a plurality of wires 214. Because the first electrical component 210 is disposed at an angle to the second electrical component 212, the innermost wire 216 has a shorter electrical path length than the outermost wire 218. To compensate for the increased linear resistance accruing in the plurality of wires 214 as the electrical path length increases from innermost wire 216 to outermost wire 218, the widths of the wires also increases from innermost wire 216 to outermost wire 218. The widths are chosen so that the total resistance of each of the plurality of wires 214 falls within a predetermined range, or is substantially the same, depending on the required tolerance for the overall circuit.

#As shown in FIG. 3, the plurality of wires 314 connecting the first electrical component 310 to the second electrical component 312 do not have to follow an angular path, but could follow a curved path, or even a multidirectional path, so long as a transverse dimension, such as wire width or wire thickness (or both) of each of the wires 314 is chosen so that the total linear resistance of each of the wires 314 falls within the desired predetermined range.