Enhanced sensitivity in FeCuNbSiB/FeGa/PZT laminate magnetoelectric sensor with up-conversion mechanism by square wave modulation

Magnetoelectric (ME) laminate composites have emerged as promising candidates for the development of highly sensitive magnetic field sensors at resonance frequency in recent years. Unfortunately, ME coefficient decreases dramatically and the noise level increases at low frequencies far from resonance, which leads to a significant reduction in sensitivity. For the purpose of removing these drawbacks, ME laminate composites have also been employed as weak magnetic field and current sensors at low frequencies, via a sine wave modulation technique [1]-[3]. The new technique offers the possibility to achieve resonance enhanced sensitivities at low frequencies. However, the magnetic field sensitivities of these proposed ME sensors by using sine wave modulation technique are still weak at power-line frequency of 50 Hz.