A Novel Three-Axis Hall Magnetic Sensor

A novel three-axis sensor for simultaneous and independent magnetic-field components measurement based on the Hall effect has been implemented and tested. On the upper side of n-Si substrate, a 10 mu m deep rectangular-shaped p-ring sized 50 x 160 mu m(2) has been formed. In the n-zone surrounded by p-well, through six ohmic contacts, two parallel-field Hall devices for in-plane B-x and B-y components registration and one orthogonal Hall element for B-z detection has been functional integrated. The 3D magnetometer has been fabricated using silicon planar technology. The experimentally obtained magnetosensitivities are S-x approximate to 41 V/AT, S-y approximate to 43 V/AT and S-z approximate to 49 V/AT, the cross-sensitivity reaches no more than 3%, the non-linearity is 1-2%, the noise spectral density on all outputs at frequency f <= 1000 Hz is of the 1/f type and the sensor detectivity is B-min approximate to 21 mu T. The spatial resolution is 50 x 160 x 10 mu m(3). (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.