Development of two axes magnetometer for navigation applications

•Two axes magnetometer was developed based on barber pole biased AMR technology.•AMR effect theory was detailed to support the simulation of the biased sensor.•Transfer characteristics were studied as a function of sensor design parameters.•Ultrathin interfacial Pt layers ensured thermal stability of the AMR film.•Sensor was calibrated with Helmholtz coil magnetic simulator to measure heading. Anisotropic Magneto resistance (AMR) effect offers significant potential for the fabrication of low field magnetic sensors as it lends well to the Earth’s field sensing range. To operate the sensor in linear and low field regions, theoretical simulation with optimized barber pole biasing configuration was carried out and implemented to our device fabrication. Permalloy based AMR film was characterized with a magnetoresistive coefficient of 2% and then barber pole biased AMR sensor was developed to obtain a linear transfer curve with sensitivity 0.35(mV/V)/G. Further, the design was extended towards the development of two axes magnetometer and the study was concluded with the indoor calibration of magnetometer utilizing a Helmholtz coil magnetic simulator.