A method to design high SNR nanoscale magnetic sensors

doi:10.1088/0022-3727/40/15/002

A method to design high SNR nanoscale magnetic sensors using an array of tunnelling magneto-resistance (TMR) devices

P Gomez et al 2007 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40 4396-4404 doi: 10.1088/0022-3727/40/15/002

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P Gomez¹, D Litvinov² and S Khizroev³
¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, Florida International University, 10555 West Flagler Street, Miami, FL 33174, USA
² Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Rd, Houston, TX 77204, USA
³ Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Engineering Bldg. Unit 2, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
E-mail: pagomez@ee.ucr.edu, dlitvinov@uh.edu.edu and khizroev@ucr.edu

Abstract. This paper presents a systematic method to design and calculate tunnelling magneto-resistance (TMR) sensors with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The sensing module consists of four TMR devices arranged in a Wheatstone-bridge configuration. Closed-form equations were obtained to calculate TMR sensor current, array output voltage, magneto-resistance ratio, overall noise (thermal and shot) and SNR for a given bandwidth. Using this technique we were able to maximize the SNR by tuning the many parameters of the TMR devices. Typical SNR values are in excess of 45 dB.

Print publication: Issue 15 (7 August 2007)
Received 10 October 2006, in final form 5 June 2007
Published 13 July 2007

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A method to design high SNR nanoscale magnetic sensors using an array of tunnelling magneto-resistance (TMR) devices

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