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Orthogonal micro-fluxgate with S-shape excitation wire and 3D solenoid detection coil

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Abstract

A novel orthogonal micro-fluxgate fabricated by a simple and inexpensive process is described in this paper. The sensor consists of an S-shape excitation wire surrounded by an electroplated Permalloy layer and a 3D micro-solenoid. The problem of low sensitivity, low input resistance and high noise of orthogonal micro-fluxgate were solved with the proposed structure. Standard Micro-Electro-Mechanic System (MEMS) technology is adopted for the micro-fabrication procedure. In particular, we fabricated the sensors with electroplating and wet etching, which contributes to the low-cost fabrication process. A simple testing system was established to characterize the orthogonal micro-fluxgate and second harmonic operation principle was utilized in this process. The sensitivity of the developed sensor was 660.8 V/T in the linear range of ±150 μT with operational frequency of 750 kHz and excitation current of 80 mA-rms. The measured magnetic noise spectrum density was 4.1 nT/√Hz at 1 Hz and the noise rms level was 7.28 nT in the frequency range of 250 mHz to 10 Hz.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China. (Grant No. 60874101), Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (Grant No. 20126102110031) and Graduate Students Entrepreneurial Seed Fund of Northwest Polytechnical University (Grant No. Z2013074 and Grant No. Z2013075).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian, 710000, China

    Bo Guo, Shibin Liu, Shanglin Yang, Guifang Li, Juping Li & Xiaoyan Sun

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  1. Bo Guo
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  2. Shibin Liu
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  3. Shanglin Yang
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  4. Guifang Li
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  5. Juping Li
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  6. Xiaoyan Sun
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Correspondence to Shibin Liu.

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Guo, B., Liu, S., Yang, S. et al. Orthogonal micro-fluxgate with S-shape excitation wire and 3D solenoid detection coil. Microsyst Technol 21, 1579–1586 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-014-2326-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-014-2326-1

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