Digital stochastic magnetic-field detection

The objective of this project is the improvement of magnetic-field detection for parallel data reading. In this paper a new type of sensor for magnetic-field measuring is presented, which allows the detection or measurement of magnetic fields on square-micrometre areas with a flexible sensitivity. This performance is achieved by specially designed CMOS MAGFET structures that directly digitize the Hall field at the point of measurement, hence avoiding further analogue gain noise disturbances. It is shown which stochastic evaluations lead to millitesla resolutions on square-micrometre regions in the microsecond range and to microtela resolutions in intervals of seconds. Some prototypes of digitizing stochastic MAGFET cells have been fabricated. The principal layout structures of cells are shown. An impact on future data-recording improvement is predicted if digital data-track adaptation methods are implemented into integrated digital reading heads.