Systems and methods to test and/or recover magnetic sensors with esd or other damage
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorIcko E.T. Iben
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system for testing a magnetic sensor according to one embodiment includes a discharge circuit to cause a discharge event on a magnetic sensor; a bias generation circuit to apply at least one first bias current to the sensor and at least one second bias current to the sensor, the second bias current being different than the first bias current; a resistance determination circuit to determine a resistance of the magnetic sensor at each of the applied bias currents; and a damage determination circuit to determine whether the magnetic sensor is damaged and/or was fixed by a discharge event based on the resistances.
Claims10
A system for testing a magnetic sensor, comprising:
- a discharge circuit to cause a discharge event on a magnetic sensor;
- a bias generation circuit to apply at least one first bias current to the sensor and at least one second bias current to the sensor, the second bias current being different than the first bias current;
- a resistance determination circuit to determine a resistance of the magnetic sensor at each of the applied bias currents;
- and
- a damage determination circuit to determine whether the magnetic sensor is at least one of damaged or was fixed by a discharge event based on the resistances.
A computer program product for determining whether a magnetic sensor is damaged, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to:
- measure, by the processing circuit, resistances of a magnetic sensor at multiple bias currents;
- determine, by the processing circuit, that the magnetic sensor is damaged based on the measured resistances;
- select, by the processing circuit, a bias voltage sufficient to cause a discharge event that repairs the damaged magnetic sensor to a proper magnetic state thereof;
- apply, by the processing circuit, the bias voltage to the magnetic sensor;
- and
- couple, by the processing circuit, the lead of the magnetic sensor to ground after applying the bias voltage for causing the discharge event, wherein the discharge event fixes the damaged magnetic sensor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.