IMTC 2005 – Instrumentation and Measurement

Technology Conference
Ottawa, Canada, 17-19 May 2005

From a PCB Fluxgate to an integrated micro Fluxgate magnetic sensor

Andrea Baschirotto1, Enrico Dallago2, Piero Malcovati2, Marco Marchesi2 , Giuseppe Venchi2
1
Dept. of Innovation Engineering, University of Lecce,
73100 Lecce - Italy
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Pavia,
27100 Pavia – Italy marchesi@power0.unipv.it

Abstract – In this paper a double axis micro Fluxgate
magnetic sensor is presented. The device represents an
evolution of a PCB dual axis sensor previously realized. In the
PCB version the experimental results exhibit excellent
agreement with the simulations performed using a tool based
on the finite element method. Using the same design approach
a version of the double axis Fluxgate structure to be realized
in IC technology is here proposed. The accurate study of the
magnetic field distribution allows a 75% area saving for the
IC version with respect to a direct scaling of the PCB version.
Imposing an external magnetic field of about 60 µT, the
simulated differential output voltage of the micro-integrated
Fluxgate sensor achieves a peak value of 1 mV with 5 mA
sinusoidal excitation current peak at 100 kHz.
Keywords – Planar Fluxgate; Amorphous Magnetic Core;
Magnetic Sensors; Finite Element Method
I. INTRODUCTION
The Fluxgate structure [1, 2] appears to be the most
feasible solution for realizing precise vector magnetic
field sensors to be used in Earth’s magnetic field
measurements (i.e. with 60 µT full scale). Fluxgates are
preferred with respect to other magnetic sensors for their
capability to operate in harsh environment where
endurance against magnetic, thermal and mechanical
shocks is important [3-5]. The main drawback of
Fluxgate magnetic sensors is the complex construction
of the core and the coils. In recent years, new topologies
of planar integrated micro-fluxgate [6] have been
presented, which allow small dimensions and low power
consumption to be achieved together with a
simplification of the integration process. When small
dimensions and low power consumption are not vital,
similar topologies can be fabricated in PCB technology
[7, 8]. The choice in favor of PCB technology derives
showed a good matching with measurements, the same
tool and the same design approach have been used to
develop a micro integrated version of the double axis
Fluxgate to be realize in IC technology.
II. THE BASIC SENSOR STRUCTURE
The schematic of the PCB structure realized for the
double axis Fluxgate is shown in Fig. 1. It consists of an
excitation coil and four sensing coils. The actual
implementation is shown in the photo of Fig. 2. The
planar excitation coil is characterized by 30 Pm
thickness, 30 turns and 400 Pm pitch. The current in the
excitation coil should be enough to saturate the
ferromagnetic material glued over the PCB (see Fig. 2).
This material is shaped as a cross in order to make the
device sensitive to the two components of a magnetic
field coplanar with the PCB. For each component of the
magnetic field the output voltage is obtained from two
sensing coils placed in differential configuration, having
17 Pm thickness, 21 turns and 400 Pm pitch. The
excitation and sensing coils are realized on two different
metal layers of the multilayer PCB structure, at a
distance of 50 Pm from each other. The total device size
is 57.3 mm x 58.1 mm.
The ferromagnetic material core is the amorphous
alloy Vitrovac 6025 [9]. This material was chosen
57.3 mm
58.1 mm

primarily from its reduced cost and efficient fabrication.

On the other hand, since low power consumption and
small dimensions are indeed the fundamental
requirements for a magnetic field sensor to be embedded
in portable devices, a micro-integrated version is
mandatory for these applications. In this case a study to
foresee the characteristics of the micro integrated sensor
can be very useful. Since the simulation results obtained
with the software Flux3D [8] for the PCB structure Fig. 1 Schematic of the PCB double axis Fluxgate realized

0-7803-8879-8/05/$20.00 ©2005 IEEE 1756


3400 µm
37700 µm
VITROVAC
Fig. 2 Photograph of the double axis planar Fluxgate magnetic
sensor proposed; the ferromagnetic material core is glued over
the excitation coil with an adhesive
Fig. 3 Mesh view near the ferromagnetic core: to create a good
mesh near the core a box has been introduced to simplify the
mesh generation
because of its extremely high relative permeability
(Pr = 105) and low losses. Its saturation magnetic
induction is 0.55 T.
The core has been modeled in cross shape using a
scissor, therefore the orthogonality between the two axis
of sensitivity will be tightly correlated to the precision
of the manual approach.
III. PCB STRUCTURE
A. Simulation Model
The software based on the finite element method
used for the analysis is Flux3D® [10].
The main issue in the setup of the model was to
create a good mesh after taking into account the
geometrical configuration of the ferromagnetic material,
which is a cross sheet with dimensions of about
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Bmax= 0.55 T
Fig. 4 Simulated magnetic induction in the structure with a
600 mA excitation current
Simulation
Experimental
Fig. 5 Comparison between the simulation and
experimental result
37700 Pm x 3400 Pm x 25 Pm on the diagonal (Fig. 2).
The critical dimension is the thickness of only 25 Pm,
which leads to a large number of elements in the mesh
(285985 volume elements). A particular view of the
mesh obtained is shown in Fig. 3.
The first simulation performed was devoted to
evaluate the minimum peak value of the excitation
current that guarantees the saturation of the
ferromagnetic material. Using different magnetostatic
analyses we verified that a peak current of about
600 mA is necessary to saturate the Vitrovac, as shown
in Fig. 4.
The second simulation, performed considering the
geometrical model proposed in Fig. 1 with a 10 kHz,
600 mA peak amplitude sinusoidal excitation current
together with a field of 20 PT coplanar to the PCB and
parallel to the ferromagnetic material, was aimed to
determine the transient response of the device. The

Fig. 6 Transfer characteristic of the PCB Fluxgate obtained
with a spectrum analyzer
Fig. 7 Angle response for the two measurement axes
(X and Y).
results of this transient magnetic simulation, for one axis
of sensitivity, are shown in Fig. 5, that reports also the
comparison with the experimental result. The simulation
shows a differential output voltage in agreement with
the Fluxgate principle. The output voltage obtained has
a 15 mV amplitude that demonstrates the good device
sensitivity.
B. Experimental Results
Imposing an external magnetic field with a pair of
Helmholtz coils, the differential output voltage of the
PCB structure has been evaluated. The comparison
between the simulation and experimental results, shown
in Fig. 5, gives an error of about 10 % on the amplitude
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Fig. 8 Frequency dependence of the relative magnetic
permeability of the Vitrovac 6025.
113 Pm
2513 Pm
Fig. 9 Simulation model of the integrated version of the PCB
structure
of the output voltage. This error is extremely low in
consideration of the simulation conditions adopted to
reduce the computation time.
To characterize the PCB structure, the external magnetic
field has been varied in the range of ±100 µT.
The differential output voltage from the pick-up coils
was analyzed with a 3562A Hewlett Packard Dynamic
Signal Analyzer to extract the value of the 2nd order
harmonic (at double the frequency of the excitation
signal). This voltage is plotted in Fig. 6 against the
external magnetic field. The sensor shows a linearity
error of about 2.6% full scale in the range of ±60 µT
with a sensitivity of 0.37 mV/µT.
To evaluate the possibility of using the sensor as a 2D-
vector magnetic field detector a suitable read-out circuit
has been realized. Different analyses have been realized
as reported in [11]. The voltage output of the sensor
measured while rotating it in a horizontal plane is shown
in Fig. 7. The angle error was smaller than 6° and
included signal non-linearity, hysteresis and noise. This
value of angle error is suspected to be mainly due to
manual imprecision in cutting the ferromagnetic
material into a cross shape as well as to inaccuracy in
the orientation of the sensor in the measurement setup.
IV. INTEGRATED MICRO STRUCTURE
Using the experience with the PCB prototype an IC
version of the double axis Fluxgate sensor for low
power applications requiring small dimension has been
developed. The design features have been assumed in
agreement with the IC realization of the two coils in a
0.5 Pm CMOS technology with a post processing for the
deposition of the ferromagnetic material.
To establish the best geometrical dimensions for the
IC structure, it was necessary to evaluate for each
sensing coil the influence on the induced voltage of the
number of turns and the active area (i.e. the flux linkage)
of the coils as well as the frequency of the excitation
current. According to the Faraday law, the induced
voltage for a coil wrapped around the core is given by:
d) dB (t )
Vind   N sens ˜ S ˜  N sens ˜ S ˜
dt dt
[Eq.1]
where Nsens is the number of turns of the sensing coil,
Nexc is the number of turns of the excitation coil, S is the
cross section of the sensing coil, l is the length of the
excitation coil, µ is the absolute magnetic permeability
Fig. 10 Distribution of the perpendicular component of the
magnetic induction in a plane coplanar with the sensing coil
d § P ˜ N exc ˜ I 0 sin( 2Sf exc t ) ·
¨ ¸
dt © l ¹
1759
and I0·sin(2ʌ·fexc·t) is the sinusoidal excitation current at
frequency fexc. In the case of a planar coil a scale factor
could be introduced to adjust the formulas in the
particular case. Since all the parameters related to the
area in the IC version are scaled down, the desired
sensitivity should be achieved by:
¾ increasing the excitation frequency (fexc);
¾ increasing the number of turns of the sensing coil
(Nsens);
¾ increasing the cross section of the ferromagnetic
material (S).
However, the increase of the excitation frequency is
limited by the loss in the relative permeability due to the
eddy current effect. The frequency dependence of the
relative magnetic permeability for Vitrovac 6025 is
shown in Fig. 8 where a cut off frequency of 10 kHz is
present. The number of turns in the sensing coils can be
increased according to the minimum pitch of the used
technology but a limit on the overall area exists. Finally,
if a larger cross section of the material is used, a higher
current is required to saturate the ferromagnetic material
and the power consumption increases.
The model created in Flux3D is shown in Fig. 9: it
consists of an excitation coil and four sensing coils, a
pair for each axis of sensitivity. The planar excitation
coil is characterized by 5.5 Pm thickness, 95 turns and
9 Pm pitch (5 Pm width and 4 Pm spacing). The total
area for the excitation coil is (1760 x 1760) Pm2.
In order to optimize the device area occupation a
number of magnetostatic analyses were performed
varying the area of the sensing coil. The simulations
showed that the component of magnetic induction
associated with the ferromagnetic material perpendicular
Bmax= 0.55 T
Fig. 11 Simulated magnetic induction in the structure with a
5 mA peak of excitation current

Fig. 12 Differential output voltage simulated with Flux3D
to the plane of the sensing coil is concentrated in a small
area under each of the outer end of the core branches (
Fig. 10). Therefore the sensing coils were centered in
these areas and their size was reduced to the minimum
possible. This gives a 75% area saving with respect to
the direct scaling of the PCB prototype, without any
performance loss. The geometrical parameters of the
sensing coils based on the used technology are: 1 Pm
thickness, 1.3 Pm width and 1.6 Pm spacing. The total
area for the sensing coils, consisting of 75 turns, is 450 x
450 Pm2.
The Vitrovac 6025 has been introduced in the
simulation in cross shape with the dimensions of
2513 Pm x 113 Pm on the diagonal (Fig. 9).
The first analysis step was to evaluate the minimum
thickness for the ferromagnetic material that can be
saturated with a peak current of about 5 mA (in order to
limit the power consumption). Using different
magnetostatic analysis we established that the complete
saturation condition is obtained with a thickness of
1 Pm, as shown in Fig. 11.
The second analysis was performed considering the
geometrical model proposed in Fig. 7 with a 100 kHz,
5 mA peak amplitude sinusoidal excitation current
together with a 60 PT magnetic field coplanar to the
micro-integrated structure and parallel to the
ferromagnetic material. The results of this transient
magnetic simulation, for one axis of sensitivity, are
shown in Fig. 12. The simulation shows a differential
output voltage in agreement with the Fluxgate principle.
The output voltage obtained has an amplitude of about
1 mV, sufficiently large to be processed by the readout
circuit.
V. CONCLUSIONS
A PCB double axis Fluxgate magnetic sensor has
been realized and analyzed with a software tool based
1760
on the finite element method. The simulations showed a
good agreement with the experimental results, therefore
the same software has been used to evaluate the
performance of a micro-integrated version of the double
axis Fluxgate, which is presently under fabrication. The
simulation results predict that the micro-integrated
sensor will have enough sensitivity for sensing the
Earth’s magnetic field, with a power consumption two
orders of magnitude lower than the PCB version. The
accurate use of the simulation tools allows 75% area
saving for the IC version with respect to the direct
scaling of the PCB version, as well as a strong reduction
of the power consumption.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank STMicroelectronics,
Cornaredo Italy, for technological support, Cedrat,
Grenoble France, for allowing our use of their FEM
simulator and Vacuumschmelze, Hanau Germany, for
Vitrovac® samples.
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