Study of the Impact of Design Factors on Micro-Fluxgate Sensing Element

One of the most important magnetic field sensors is the fluxgate magnetometer. Fluxgates are vectorial magnetic field sensors, used at low frequencies when a nano tesla accuracy and pico tesla resolution measurements are required. Fluxgate sensor operation depends on driving a nonlinear magnetic material into periodical saturation in order to detect weak magnetic fields at a certain measuring range. The main component of a fluxgate sensor is the core that constitutes its sensing element. Thus, an accurate prediction of the core’s behavior is mandatory in order to ensure a proper design of the fluxgate sensor. In this paper, a detailed study on the fluxgate core’s performance, and its dependence of operational and geometrical design factors, is done through numerical approach. Furthermore, the conducted study involves an appropriate model of the magnetic material part of the core, to get a better representative behavior of the fluxgate sensing element against different operating conditions. Results of the proposed numerical approach give a more reliable insight about the response of the fluxgate core against the investigated design factors.