Angle Sensors Based on Oblique Giant Magneto Impedance Devices

The measurement of external magnetic field orientation using Giant Magneto Impedance (GMI) sensors has been performed. A soft magnetic alloy of Co30Fe34Ni36 was electroplated on a Si wafer with a CoFeNi seed layer. V-shaped microwire patterns were formed using a conventional photolithography process. An external magnetic field was generated by a rectangular AlNiCo permanent magnet. The reference direction was defined as the external magnetic field direction oriented in the middle of 2 GMI devices. As the orientation of the magnetic field deviated from the reference direction, variation in the field component along each device introduced voltage changes. It was found that, by taking the voltage difference between the left and right arms of the Vshaped device, the nonlinearity of each device could be significantly reduced. The fabricated angle sensor had a linear range of approximately 70 o and an overall sensitivity of approximately 10 mV.