Thin-film and micro-fiber Permalloy magnetoresistors. A comparison

Thin-film and micro-fiber magnetoresistive sensors are compared in terms of preparation, crystalline structure and anisotropy, domain patterns, magnetization processes, transverse magnetoresistive responses and sensing devices. The relative merits of each sensor are discussed and exemplified for the case of application to a gear tooth sensor. A negative aspect of the micro-fiber is the high transverse demagnetizing factor, which decreases the sensitivity. However, micro-fiber sensors can be produced at a much lower cost than thin-film ones and their longitudinal sensitivity is still high