Cost‐Effective Production of Integrated Monolithic Sensor Packages: Selective laser annealing enables the setting of different reference magnetization directions on sensors

The growth of the magnetic sensor market is driven by position, speed and angle sensing needs across consumer and industrial applications. Thermal annealing has been used to maximize the magnetoresistance effects of magnetic sensors, but requires multiple steps to produce sensors with different magnetic orientations. This article gives an overview of a new selective laser annealing approach that provides several advantages over thermal annealing, such as enabling smaller magnetic device structures, reducing process steps and simplifying magnetic sensor manufacturing.