Hysteresis of the resonance frequency of magnetostrictive bending cantilevers

Magnetostrictive bending cantilevers are applicable for wirelessly measuring physical quantities such as pressure and strain. Exploiting the Delta E-effect, the resonance frequency of the cantilevers is shifted because of a change in the magnetic biasing field. The biasing field, in turn, depends on the applied pressure or strain, respectively. With a view to the application as a reliable sensor, maximum sensitivity but minimum hysteresis in the biasing field/resonance frequency dependence is preferred. In this contribution, monomorph bending cantilevers fabricated using magnetostrictive Fe49Co49V2 and Metglas 2605SA1 are investigated regarding their applicability for future sensors. For this purpose, the biasing field-dependent polarization of the magnetostrictive materials and bending of the cantilevers are determined. Furthermore, a setup to magnetically bias the cantilevers and determine the bending resonance frequency is presented. Here, the resonance frequency is identified by measuring the impulse response employing a laser Doppler vibrometer. The measurement results reveal that cantilevers made of Fe49Co49V2 possess a distinct hysteretic behaviour at low magnetic biasing field magnitudes. This is ascribed to the polarization and bending hysteresis. Cantilevers fabricated using Metglas 2605SA1 feature a lower resonance frequency shift compared to cantilevers with Fe49Co49V2, which would result in a lower sensitivity of the sensor. However, their resonance frequency hysteresis is almost negligible. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.