Magnetic-Field Sensitivity Enhancement by Magnetoelectric Sensor Arrays

We have investigated an array of magnetoelectric (ME) detection sensor units and an equivalent scheme by which to model their magnetic-field detection sensitivity. The signal response, noise level, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of an array of
m
units connected in parallel and serial modes have been analyzed. Our research shows that ME arrays in parallel increase the signal and noise currents by factors of
m
and radic
m
, respectively, while ME arrays in series do not increase the signal current but reduce the noise by radic
m
. Accordingly, we predict and experimentally confirm that the SNR increases by a factor of radic
m
, for both serial and parallel modes.