Integrating magnetoresistive sensors with microelectromechanical systems for noise reduction

Abstract

1/f noise is the dominant detection limit of magnetoresistive (MR) sensors at low frequency. The vertical motion flux modulation (VMFM) integrating with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) can reduce 1/f noise by tens or hundreds of times, although thermal-mechanical noise possibly has strong impact on the detection ability of VMFM sensors like common MEMS sensors. Surprisingly, the voltage noise originated from thermal-mechanical noise is actually far less than the noise base of MR sensors, which indicates a great perspective for the integration of MEMS and MR sensors.