Orthogonal fluxgate effect in electroplated wires

Abstract

Orthogonal fluxgate sensor was built using copper wire covered by electroplated permalloy. This type of sensor core has significant advantage over the sensors based on amorphous wires: it has no magnetic material in the central part, where the excitation field is low. 11 μV/nT sensitivity and less than 1 μT perming error were achieved for the first sensor prototype. The used core geometry also allows to measure both longitudinal and circumferencial hysteresis curves, which is important for further development. © 2005 IEEE.