Compact Digital Compass with PCB Fluxgate Sensors

The new compact digital compass with PCB fluxgate sensors and accelerometers will be introduced in this contribution. Competitive low-cost, low-accuracy compasses are dedicated for measurement in horizontal plane only. The main advantage of developed compass is that it is able to determine azimuth in every position. The compass module consists of a tri axial fluxgate magnetometer and tri axial MEMS accelerometer which is used as a tilt sensor. The excitation and evaluation electronics is build directly in the compass module. Compass module is driven by two microprocessors and is equipped with digital output. The dimensions and power consumption of the compass were decreased by using miniature PCB (Printed Circuit Board) fluxgate sensors, instead of traditional large ring core fluxgates. Improved calibration techniques have been used to decrease azimuth error of the compass. The using of accurate magnetic sensors leads to the possibility of using tri axial magnetometers for calculation of total Held intensity and use it as a vector magnetometer. The resulting device is small high accurate compass with digital output that is able to be used in underwater or underground exploration or measurement.