High-Sensitivity Wireless Sensing Using Amorphous Magnetic Microwires

Glass-coated amorphous ferromagnetic microwires subjected to variations in mass loading and parallel wire arrays with 0.5-6-cm interwire spacing were found to deliver exceptional magnetomechanical and wireless giant magnetoimpedance (GMI) responses, in the kilohertz and microwave range, respectively. The microwires allow wireless quantification of microgram mass differences: the magnetomechanical resonance frequency measured in zero applied field demonstrates an approximately linear decrease of 3 Hz/ \mu \text{g} , and a sensitivity response that is ten times greater than that reported for commercial METGLAS-type amorphous magnetic ribbons of comparable length. Microwave giant magnetoimpedance data collected from planar arrays of parallel microwires show either constructive or destructive interference when compared to data obtained from a single microwire. The exceptional responsiveness of the glass-coated amorphous ferromagnetic microwires to mass loading and to geometric arrangement, along with their small diameter and ease of fabrication, highlights their promise for a wide variety of sensor applications, including biosensing, civil infrastructure monitoring, and high-throughput remote detection schemes.