U.S. Department of Defense

 

Date of this Version

2006

Comments

Copyright Edelstein et al.

Abstract

Progress on the development of a device, the MEMS flux concentrator, for mitigating the problem of 1/f noise in magnetic sensors will be presented. The MEMS flux concentrator essentially eliminates the effect of 1/f noise by increasing the operating frequency of the sensor to a frequency region where 1/f noise is small. This is accomplished by putting flux concentrators on MEMS structures whose motion modulates the magnetic field at the position of the magnetic sensor. Depending on the sensor, mitigating the effect of 1/f noise will increase the sensitivity of magnetic sensors by one to three orders of magnitude. Combining the MEMS flux concentrator with magnetic tunnel junctions with MgO barriers should lead to low cost magnetic sensors that are able to detect 1 pT signals at 1 Hz.

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