3-D silicon Hall device with subsequent magnetic-field components measurement

A novel single-chip 3-D multidimensional device for subsequent measurement of the three orthogonal magnetic-field components using one and the same transducer zone is presented. Six ohmic planar contacts on silicon substrate are implemented both as supply and four to obtain the full information about the vector components by three successive coupling arrangements realizing two in-plane sensitive and one orthogonal Hall effect devices. The proposed approach employs the same element, but at different time. The sensor operation is determined by the direction of individual parts of nonlinear carriers' trajectory in the substrate and the Lorentz force action on them. The effective sensor resolution is 90x60x30 mu m(3). The respective channel-magnetosensitivities consists S-x approximate to 35 V/AT, S-y approximate to 26 V/AT, and S-z approximate to 18 V/AT, the channel cross-talk at induction B <= 1 T reaches no more than 3 % and the lowest detected magnetic field of the three channels is about 10 mu T in the frequency range f <= 10(2) Hz. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.