Effect Of Parasitic Capacitance on GMI Magnetic Sensor Performance

Sébastien Saez (1) , Basile Dufay (1) , Christophe Dolabdjian (1) , A. Yelon (2) , D. Menard (2)

1 Equipe Electronique - Laboratoire GREYC - UMR6072
2 Département de génie physique [Montréal]

Magnetic sensors based on GMI devices are the subject of intensive research, as they appear promising for magnetometry applications. Performances of GMI magnetometers are often limited by the noise of the electronic setup. Thus, the present challenge is to increase the GMI device sensitivity (expressed in V/T) in order to decrease the equivalent magnetic noise of the system. In our previous work, we showed that the use of a pick-up coil in an off-diagonal configuration improves the magnetic sensor sensitivity and offers a promising approach for developing an inexpensive magnetometer with sub-pT/√Hz equivalent magnetic noise levels. Ideally, the use of a coil increases the sensitivity linearly as a function of the number of turns. However, this effect is reduced by the parasitic capacitance of the coil. This affects the device sensitivity, noise level and system performance. The parasitic capacitance can degrade all of these, but also induces a resonance effect, which can help to optimize magnetometer sensitivity, and thus, its noise level. We analyze the effects of the parasitic capacitance on the system (sensitivity and noise) and propose optimization routes. We have obtained sensor sensitivity as high as 700 fT/√Hz.

Mots clés: Magnetometer; low noise sensor; GMI

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Electromagnétisme

Sébastien Saez, Basile Dufay, Christophe Dolabdjian, A. Yelon, D. Menard. Effect Of Parasitic Capacitance on GMI Magnetic Sensor Performance. Key Engineering Materials, 2013, pp.49(1), 124-127. ⟨hal-00988087⟩