Magnetic field direction detector
AssigneeAnalog Devices, Inc.
InventorJan Kubik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A magnetic field direction detector for detecting whether a magnetic flux has a component of field from a first side or a second side of a detection axis; the magnetic field direction detector comprising: a first magneto-resistive sensor; and a perturbation generator; wherein the perturbation generator causes an external magnetic field to be perturbed so as to cause the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ1 at the first magneto-resistive sensor.
Claims20
A magnetic field direction detector comprising:
- a first magneto-resistive sensor;
- a second magneto-resistive sensor;
- and
- a perturbation generator;
- wherein the perturbation generator causes an external magnetic field to be perturbed so as to cause the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ1 at the first magneto-resistive sensor,
- wherein the perturbation generator causes the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ2 at the second magneto-resistive sensor such that the relative resistances of the first and second magneto-resistive sensors vary with respect to one another,
- wherein the magnetic field direction detection is based at least in part on the changes of apparent direction of flux and the relative resistances at the first and second magneto-resistive sensors,
- wherein the magnetic field direction detector is configured to detect whether a magnetic flux has a component of field from a first side or a second side of a detection axis.
A method of resolving directional uncertainty about the direction of a magnetic field, the method comprising producing a perturbing magnetic field at a magneto-resistive magnetic sensor such that for first direction of magnetic field the resultant combination makes a first observable change in a parameter of the magnetic field sensor, and for a second direction of magnetic field opposed to the first direction the resultant combination makes a second observable change in a parameter of the magnetic field sensor;
- and resolving directional uncertainty about the direction of the magnetic field based at least in part on the first observable change and the second observable change.
A magnetic field direction detector comprising:
- a first magneto-resistive sensor;
- a second magneto-resistive sensor;
- and a perturbation generator;
- wherein the perturbation generator causes an external magnetic field to be perturbed so as to cause the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ1 at the first magneto-resistive sensor, wherein the perturbation generator causes the apparent direction of flux to change by an angle θ2 at the second magneto-resistive sensor such that the relative resistances of the first and second magneto-resistive sensors vary with respect to one another, and wherein the magnetic field direction detection is based at least in part on the relative resistances of the first and second magneto-resistive sensors, wherein the magnetic field direction detector is configured to resolve directional uncertainty about the direction of the external magnetic field.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.