Performance Degradation Effect Countermeasures in Residence Times Difference (RTD) Fluxgate Magnetic Sensors

This paper aims to explore the detection defect of residence times difference (RTD) fluxgate working in low-power mode and present the countermeasures for sensor resolution improvement and linearity enhancement. The main defects are amplitude and symmetry changes induced in the output spikes of fluxgate probe due to the magnetic field. These defects lead to thresholds deviation and asymmetry, then cause severe performance degradation especially on detection resolution and linearity according to the RTD theory. To overcome such effects, the optimized RTD method based on voltage extraction and feedback technology is proposed to implement magnetic field compensation and achieve a zero-field running regime of the RTD fluxgate. In this regard, the sensor linearity is improved by a factor of 38, and the resolution degradation effect is suppressed more than 6 times, verified by the laboratory experiments. The optimized detection method proposed in this paper demonstrated a great potential to achieve lower power consumption and will make the RTD fluxgate more promising technology among bio-magnetic applications.