Low Cost, Low Power, High Sensitivity Magnetometer

摘要

Because weapon systems, vehicles, and most communication systems all generate magnetic fields, magnetic sensors can provide useful military information. There has been significant recent progress in magnetometry. This progress includes chip scale magnetometers, magnetoelectric sensors, devices with much larger magnetoresistance (MR) and an ARL invention, the MEMS flux concentrator that is needed at low frequencies to take advantage of the larger MR values. In addition, better algorithms using total field measurements have been developed to take advantage of the improved magnetic sensors. Our main topic is the development of the MEMS flux concentrator. The MEMS flux concentrator has the potential to be a factor of 10 cheaper, consume 1% of the power, be a factor of 100 more sensitive at 1 Hz and occupy 0.001 the volume of the magnetic sensor element currently used in Army sensor systems, the Brown flux gate.