Planar fluxgate layouts using a single layer of coils

Abstract

This work describes the development of planar fluxgate magnetometers consisting of a single coils’ layer. The constructed sensors can achieve analogous noise levels to a similar double layer device, while reducing the manufacture complexity. The tread-off is an early limit in noise reduction by increasing the excitation amplitude, caused by the non-directly excited core part. But placing extra excitation coils parallel to the pick-up ones can avoid this minimum threshold. Fabrication and characterization are presented and discussed.