Electrical Characterization of a Magnetic Tunnel Junction Current Sensor for Industrial Applications

The objective of the work was the design of a Wheatstone bridge current sensor using MTJ as magnetoresistive elements. Each one of the four resistances of the bridge consists on 360 MTJ single elements connected in series for improved electrical robustness. A printed circuit board (PCB) was designed with a U-shaped copper trace placed under the PCB maintaining a 1.1 mm separation distance between sensor and trace. A 160% of tunnel magnetoresistance effect in the single junction and a 120% in its corresponding series elements connection has been achieved with a sensitivity of 9.2 Ω/Oe in a 65 Oe linear range. The DC sensor sensitivity in response to an external DC current sweeps of ±10, ±20, and ±30 A gave an average of 9.8 mV/A. The measured AC sensor response in all the tested cases corresponded to a - 3 dB frequency close to 200 kHz. The sensor was submitted to a DC current excursion under different temperatures showing a TC(S) sensitivity temperature coefficient of 0.031%/° C rather lower compared with the spin-valve technology. The work shows that MTJ sensor technology provides a promising tool in the R+D areas of power management and energy consumption like electric vehicles or energy metering.