Title :
Full Wheatstone Bridge Spin-Valve Based Sensors for IC Currents Monitoring
Author :
Cubells-Beltrán, María Dolores ; Reig, Candid ; Muñoz, Diego Ramírez ; De Freitas, Susana Isabel Pinheiro Cardoso ; De Freitas, Paulo Jorge Peixeiro
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. Eng., Univ. de Valencia, Burjassot, Spain
Abstract :
Full Wheatstone bridge spin-valve-based electrical current sensors at the IC level are presented. Prototypes with different geometrical parameters have been designed, fabricated and fully characterized. DC characterization has been carried out, for measurement of insertion losses, linearity, voltage offset and sensitivity. Current ranges from 10 muA to 100 mA can be covered with these sensors with excellent linearity and sensitivities above 1 mV/(VmiddotmA) . AC characteristics have also been analyzed and bandwidths exceeding 100 kHz are demonstrated. Moreover, the temperature coefficients have been extracted in the range of -20degC to +60degC. In order to highlight the design properties, dependence of the sensor´s performance with external magnetic perturbations and self-heating have also been measured and quantified. The associated errors are in the range of 1%-2% of the full scale.
Keywords :
bridge circuits; electric sensing devices; integrated circuit measurement; spin valves; temperature distribution; AC characteristics; DC characterization; IC current monitoring sensor design; Wheatstone bridge spin-valve based sensor fabrication; current 10 muA to 100 mA; electrical current sensor; external magnetic perturbation; insertion loss measurement; temperature -20 C to 60 C; temperature coefficients; voltage offset; Bandwidth; Bridge circuits; Insertion loss; Linearity; Loss measurement; Magnetic analysis; Monitoring; Prototypes; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Voltage; Current sensors; giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensors; spin-valve;
Journal_Title :
Sensors Journal, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/JSEN.2009.2030880