Horizontal Hall effect sensor with high maximum absolute sensitivity

Sensitivity of conventional Hall sensors is strongly limited by the well known short-circuit effect. Many researches were devoted to reduce offset and noise but few works were carried out to improve sensitivity. Here, a new shape of integrated horizontal Hall device is presented. This particular shape has been developed to minimize the short-circuit effect of the sensor, allowing one to shrink the device length and consequently to reduce the biasing resistance. Then the biasing current of this sensor can be significantly increased to obtain an absolute sensitivity higher than for conventional devices. Such a Hall effect device needs a specific biasing circuit which is also presented.