Thick Double-Biased IrMn/NiFe/IrMn Planar Hall Effect Bridge Sensors

Abstract

In this paper, we present a new material stack for planar Hall effect bridge (PHEB) sensors and a detailed investigation of the sensitivity and noise properties of PHEB sensors made from these. The sputter deposited material stack was based on a ferromagnetic (FM) NiFe sensing layer surrounded by two layers of anti-FM IrMn. This material stack enables implementation of a thick NiFe layer without loss of sensitivity. We present an improvement in detectivity in the PHEB by changing the shape and the materials of the corners between the sensors in a meander shape. A significant reduction of noise also comes from the thick NiFe layer, due to the reduced resistance of the sensor.