Operation of Lorentz-force MEMS magnetometers with on-off current switching

Author

Langfelder, Giacomo ; Buffa, C. ; Minotti, Paolo ; Longoni, A. ; Tocchio, Alessandro ; Zerbini, Sarah

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Elettron., Inf. e Bioingegneria, Politec. di Milano, Milan, Italy

fYear

2014

fDate

22-26 Sept. 2014

Firstpage

62

Lastpage

65

Abstract

Combined off-resonance operation and on-off switching of the driving current is applied to a micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) magnetometer. This novel driving technique allows improving the signal to noise ratio (SNR), and thus the minimum measurable magnetic field, with no added cost in terms of driving current. The technique is applied to a magnetometer built in a surface micromachining process. Measurements show a 5.4 times better resolution than for operation at resonance in continuous mode.

Keywords

force sensors; magnetic field measurement; magnetic sensors; magnetometers; micromachining; microsensors; Lorentz-force MEMS magnetometer; SNR; driving current; microelectromechanical system magnetometer; off-resonance operation; on-off current switching; signal to noise ratio; surface micromachining process; Bandwidth; Current measurement; Magnetic field measurement; Magnetometers; Micromechanical devices; Noise; Sensors; MEMS sensors; digital compass; inertial measurement units; magnetometers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid State Device Research Conference (ESSDERC), 2014 44th European

Conference_Location

Venice

ISSN

1930-8876

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-4378-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESSDERC.2014.6948758

Filename

6948758