Enhanced sensitivity of temperature-compensated SAW-based current sensor using the magnetostrictive effect

Abstract

A temperature-compensated surface acoustic wave (SAW)-based current sensor was proposed in this contribution, composed of a sensor chip made by SAW delay line patterns on a SiO2/128° YX LiNbO3 piezoelectric substrate, a magnetostrictive FeCo film deposited on the SAW propagation path, and a corresponding differential oscillation configuration. The FeCo coating produced magnetostrictive strain under the magnetic field generated by the applied current, leading to linearity changes in the SAW propagation in the form of velocity change. The corresponding differential oscillation frequency shift was used to evaluate the tested current. By solving the coupled electromechanical field equation in a layered structure while considering the magnetostrictive effect, the optimal FeCo film thickness, and sensor operation frequency yielding high current sensitivity, were determined, and then confirmed experimentally by evaluating the developed SAW current sensor system utilizing a Helmholtz coil. A high sensitivity of 16.6 KHz A−1 (8.3 KHz m−1 T−1), excellent linearity, and lower detection limit (∼0.2 mA) were achieved with our 300 MHz SAW sensor with a 500 nm FeCo coating and aspect ratio of 2:1.