High sensitivity face shear magneto-electric composite array for weak magnetic field sensing

Abstract

A magnetic field sensor is designed and fabricated using a piezoelectric face shear mode Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN–PT)/Metglas magneto-electric (ME) composite. An outstanding ME coupling coefficient up to 1600 V/(cm Oe) was experimentally achieved, being ∼50% higher than the value from the extensional PMN–PT/Metglas ME composite with the same volume. The detection limit was found to be 2 × 10−6 Oe for the DC magnetic field, while it was 2 × 10−8 Oe for the AC magnetic field. The sensitivity of the face shear mode PMN–PT/Metglas ME composite is about one order of magnitude higher than that of a 32 extensional mode PMN–PT/Metglas based ME composite in sensing a weak DC magnetic field. A sensing array was also designed based on the ME composite to image weak DC magnetic fields, demonstrating a great potential promising for sensing weak magnetic fields.

Modeling and Parallel Operation of Exchange-Biased Delta-E Effect Magnetometers for Sensor Arrays

“…The exchange bias provides an internal bias field and thereby paves the way to flexible and compact delta-E effect sensor arrays with many sensor elements. Only recently were sensor arrays based on magnetoelectric sensor elements reported [43][44][45][46][47], and were limited to direct magnetoelectric detection and were mostly based on macroscopic resonators. A CMOS integrated array of magnetoelastic sensor elements was presented for vector magnetometry [48], but the sensor elements were only characterized individually and without a signal and noise analysis.…”

High-Resolution Magnetoelectric Sensor and Low-Frequency Measurement Using Frequency Up-Conversion Technique

“…In general, the limit of detection (LOD) depends on the dimension of the ME sensor and the operating frequency, and the LOD under an AC field is smaller than that under a DC one. For example, the LOD under an AC magnetic field of a metal glass/lead niobium magnesium-Lead titanate (Metglas/PMN-PT) sensor, reported by S. Zhang at University of Wollongong, is 2 pT, while that under a DC magnetic field is only 200 pT [ 35 ]. Z. Chu at Peking University also reported an LOD of 115 pT for a Metglas/PMN-PT sensor at 10 Hz [ 36 ].…”

High Resolution Magnetoelectric Sensor and Low-frequency Measurement using Frequency up-conversion Technique

“…In general, the limit of detection (LOD) depends on the dimension of ME sensor and the operating frequency, and the LOD for the thin-film sensor is better than that of bulk one, and the LOD for AC field is smaller than that for DC one as well. For example, the LOD of AC magnetic field for metal glass/lead niobium magnesium-Lead titanate (Metglas/PMN-PT) sensor, reported by S. Zhang in University of Wollongong, is 2 pT, while that of DC magnetic field is only 200 pT [34]. Z. Chu in Peking University also reported a LOD of 115 pT in a Metglas/PMN-PT sensor at 10 Hz [35].…”