MEMS Fluxgate Sensor Based on Liquid Casting

• Published in: Micromachines (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 12; p. 2159
• Main Authors: Yang, Ying, Xu, Wei, Chen, Guangyuan, Jin, Zhenhu, Wang, Dandan, Mai, Zhihong, Xing, Guozhong, Chen, Jiamin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26-11-2023
• Subjects: Amorphous alloys; Annealing; Closed loops; Comparative analysis; Crystallization; Design; Electromagnetism; Electroplating; Fe-based amorphous alloy; finite element simulation; Fluxgate magnetometers; fluxgate sensor; liquid casting; Magnetic fields; Manufacturing; Metallic glasses; micro-electro-mechanical system; Microelectromechanical systems; Permeability; Plating; Power consumption; Process parameters; Sensitivity; Sensors; Signal processing; Simulation; Simulation models; Solenoids; China; Fe-based amorphous alloy; finite element simulation; micro-electro-mechanical system; fluxgate sensor; liquid casting
• ISSN: 2072-666X; 2072-666X
• DOI: 10.3390/mi14122159

Compared with electroplating, liquid casting enables the rapid formation of a three-dimensional solenoid coil with a narrower line width and greater thickness, which proves advantageous in enhancing the comprehensive performance of the micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) fluxgate sensor. For this reason, a MEMS fluxgate sensor based on liquid casting with a closed-loop Fe-based amorphous alloy core is proposed. Based on the process parameters of liquid casting, the structure of the MEMS fluxgate sensor was designed. Utilizing MagNet to build the simulation model, the optimal excitation conditions and sensitivity were obtained. According to the simulation model, a highly sensitive MEMS fluxgate sensor based on liquid casting was fabricated. The resulting sensor exhibits a sensitivity of 2847 V/T, a noise of 306 pT/√Hz@1 Hz, a bandwidth of DC-10.5 kHz, and a power consumption of 43.9 mW, which shows high sensitivity and low power consumption compared with other MEMS fluxgates in similar size.