Advances of amorphous wire magnetics over 27 years

An overview of advances of the amorphous wire magnetics over the past 27 years with discoveries of extremely sensitive magnetic effects such as the large Barkhausen effect the Matteucci effect and the magnetoimpedance effect and then successive applications to security sensor tags pen inputting computer tablets and electronic compasses for mobile phones in commercial productions is presented. An important new topic of biocell magnetic field sensing in vitro and human physiological magnetic field sensing in vivo using a 10 pT amorphous wire magnetoimpedance sensor is also shown that would be improved using thinner glass-covered amorphous wires. (C) 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim