Projects

The goal of this project is the development of highly sensitive miniaturized magnetic field sensors for localization applications. As preliminary work has shown, the realization of such devices is achieved by the application of a new sensor principle combining silicon devices with magnetically soft magnetic field concentrators. Despite the fact that extremely high sensitivities are reached, the current mode of operation requires a relatively high energy consumption. This is predominantly due to the current required by an auxiliary coil used to extract a frequency signal depending linearly on the external magnetic field. The continuation of this work addresses the analysis of alternative, more economical modes of operation, the integration of the sensor into a feed back system allowing a stable operation at resonance frequency, and the further miniaturization and optimization of the magnetomechanical sensor. The interaction of these individual aspects requires the formulation and combination of scaling models describing the mechanical, magnetic, thermal, and electrical effects. This goes beyond the preliminary work that has focused mainly on magnetic aspects. Further goals are the generalization of the current one-dimensional structures to two-dimensional vector scale magnetic field sensors, both as a resonant system and as a combination of concentrator structures and semiconductor Hall plates. Both approaches will be stimulated by the investigation of novel concentrator geometries and possibly the development of novel concepts for two-dimensional resonant structures.