Silicon on sapphire magnetodiodes of high sensitiveness

The values of recombination parameters (bulk lifetime and surface recombination velocities) of films of Silicon On Sapphire allow the realization of magnetodiodes, which are both very sensitive and compatible with the VLSI Technology. The S. O. S. magnetodiodes we present exhibit an average sensitiveness on the order of some 150 mA/Tesla (10 times the sensitiveness of Hall effect). Besides very low magnetic fields (B = 10^-8T = 10γ) are easily detectable.