New and future applications of fluxgate sensors

Integrated fluxgate sensors offer a wide range of new and future applications due to their favorable properties in combination with a reasonable price. The high sensitivity of 30 mV/muT in combination with operation from a single 5 V source and analogue output signals for +/-65muT is suitable for measurements of weak magnetic fields, for example the earth field of approximately 45muT. Due to low drifts, below 500 ppm/K are guaranteed, below 100 ppm/K can be achieved on selected sensors, temperature compensation can often be avoided. For already existing applications, new aspects and possibilities arise. This is evaluated and discussed together with some completely new applications. For some future applications the background is analyzed and the requirements for the system development are described. Next to navigation as one of the oldest applications, detection of ferrous objects, position measurement through generated fields and non-destructive testing becomes more and more important. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.