Electromagnetic modeling and harmonic analysis of micro-machined ring-type magnetic fluxgate sensor using SPICE

In this paper, micro-machined ring-type magnetic fluxgate sensors have been simulated and analyzed by help of an innovative SPICE model. Since SPICE is one of the most versatile tools used for simulation of electronic circuits, this model can be used for system level optimization by simulating fluxgate sensor along with its excitation and sensing circuit. The presented SPICE model includes saturation and hysteresis phenomenon of magnetic core and can be used for any generic excitation waveform. This model has been successfully applied to micromachined ring-type fluxgate sensors, fabricated by UV-LIGA technique at University of Cincinnati and very good matching has been observed between the simulated and measured values as stated in R. Rub et al. (2001) and T. M. Liakapolous and C. H. Ahn (1999).