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Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2017) | Viewed by 36114

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Nian X. Sun

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Guest Editor

Keck Laboratory for Integrated Ferroics, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
Interests: magnetic; ferroelectric; magnetoelectric materials; devices and subsystems

Prof. Dr. Ming Liu

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Guest Editor

School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Interests: multiferroics; spintronics; microwave devices; ferrites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Menghui Li

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Guest Editor

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
Interests: magnetoelectric composites; magnetic sensors; MEMS and NEMS devices; piezoelectric materials; magnetostrictive materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Magnetoelectric heterostructures have drawn a great amount of interest in different applications, especially for low cost, room temperature, and highly sensitive magnetic field sensors. Recent advances in magnetoelectric heterostructures with various configurations, such as bulk and thin film heterostructures, have enabled magnetoelectric sensors for detection of extremely weak magnetic signals at DC, low frequency, and even RF range. On the other hand, voltage-tunable magnetic states in multiferroic heterostructures are found to be extremely significant, which show great potential for delivering smaller, faster, ultra-low power memory, power, RF, and microwave devices.

This Special Issue aims to present recent developments in magnetic sensors based on magnetoelectric heteostructures, including but not limited to:

Bulk and thin film magnetoelectric heterostructures
MEMS devices and sensors
NEMS resonators based ME sensors
Theoretical modelling and simulation
Voltage control of magnetism
Magnetic field detection and mapping
Noise reduction

Prof. Nian X. Sun
Prof. Ming Liu
Dr. Menghui Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Magnetoelectrics
Multiferroics
Magnetoelectric heterostructures
Magnetoelectric sensors
Magnetic sensors
Magnetometers
RF magnetic sensors
Magnetoelectric antennas

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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3192 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Equivalent Circuit Model of Low-Frequency Magnetoelectric Effect in Disk-Type Terfenol-D/PZT Laminate Composites Considering a New Interface Coupling Factor

by Guofeng Lou, Xinjie Yu and Shihua Lu

Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1399; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061399 - 15 Jun 2017

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6453

Abstract

This paper describes the modeling of magnetoelectric (ME) effects for disk-type Terfenol-D (Tb_0.3Dy_0.7Fe_1.92)/PZT (Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃) laminate composite at low frequency by combining the advantages of the static elastic model and the equivalent circuit model, aiming at providing a guidance for the design and fabrication of the sensors based on magnetoelectric laminate composite. Considering that the strains of the magnetostrictive and piezoelectric layers are not equal in actual operating due to the epoxy resin adhesive bonding condition, the magnetostrictive and piezoelectric layers were first modeled through the equation of motion separately, and then coupled together with a new interface coupling factor k_c, which physically reflects the strain transfer between the phases. Furthermore, a theoretical expression containing k_c for the transverse ME voltage coefficient α_v and the optimum thickness ratio n_optim to which the maximum ME voltage coefficient corresponds were derived from the modified equivalent circuit of ME laminate, where the interface coupling factor acted as an ideal transformer. To explore the influence of mechanical load on the interface coupling factor k_c, two sets of weights, i.e., 100 g and 500 g, were placed on the top of the ME laminates with the same thickness ratio n in the sample fabrication. A total of 22 T-T mode disk-type ME laminate samples with different configurations were fabricated. The interface coupling factors determined from the measured α_v and the DC bias magnetic field H_bias were 0.11 for 500 g pre-mechanical load and 0.08 for 100 g pre-mechanical load. Furthermore, the measured optimum thickness ratios were 0.61 for k_c = 0.11 and 0.56 for k_c = 0.08. Both the theoretical ME voltage coefficient α_v and optimum thickness ratio n_optim containing k_c agreed well with the measured data, verifying the reasonability and correctness for the introduction of k_c in the modified equivalent circuit model. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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3855 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Calibration of Magnetometers with GNSS Receivers and Magnetometer-Aided GNSS Ambiguity Fixing

by Patrick Henkel

Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1324; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061324 - 08 Jun 2017

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5947

Abstract

Magnetometers provide compass information, and are widely used for navigation, orientation and alignment of objects. As magnetometers are affected by sensor biases and eventually by systematic distortions of the Earth magnetic field, a calibration is needed. In this paper, a method for calibration of magnetometers with three Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers is presented. We perform a least-squares estimation of the magnetic flux and sensor biases using GNSS-based attitude information. The attitude is obtained from the relative positions between the GNSS receivers in the North-East-Down coordinate frame and prior knowledge of these relative positions in the platform’s coordinate frame. The relative positions and integer ambiguities of the periodic carrier phase measurements are determined with an integer least-squares estimation using an integer decorrelation and sequential tree search. Prior knowledge on the relative positions is used to increase the success rate of ambiguity fixing. We have validated the proposed method with low-cost magnetometers and GNSS receivers on a vehicle in a test drive. The calibration enabled a consistent heading determination with an accuracy of five degrees. This precise magnetometer-based attitude information allows an instantaneous GNSS integer ambiguity fixing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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4172 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Magnetoelectric Current Sensors

by Mirza Bichurin, Roman Petrov, Viktor Leontiev, Gennadiy Semenov and Oleg Sokolov

Sensors 2017, 17(6), 1271; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17061271 - 02 Jun 2017

Cited by 51 | Viewed by 7256

Abstract

In this work a magnetoelectric (ME) current sensor design based on a magnetoelectric effect is presented and discussed. The resonant and non-resonant type of ME current sensors are considered. Theoretical calculations of the ME current sensors by the equivalent circuit method were conducted. The application of different sensors using the new effects, for example, the ME effect, is made possible with the development of new ME composites. A large number of studies conducted in the field of new composites, allowed us to obtain a high magnetostrictive-piezoelectric laminate sensitivity. An optimal ME structure composition was matched. The characterization of a non-resonant current sensor showed that in the operation range to 5 A, the sensor had a sensitivity of 0.34 V/A, non-linearity less than 1% and for a resonant current sensor in the same operation range, the sensitivity was of 0.53 V/A, non-linearity less than 0.5%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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1455 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification of Mobile Phones Using the Built-In Magnetometers Stimulated by Motion Patterns

by Gianmarco Baldini, Franc Dimc, Roman Kamnik, Gary Steri, Raimondo Giuliani and Claudio Gentile

Sensors 2017, 17(4), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17040783 - 06 Apr 2017

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5168

Abstract

We investigate the identification of mobile phones through their built-in magnetometers. These electronic components have started to be widely deployed in mass market phones in recent years, and they can be exploited to uniquely identify mobile phones due their physical differences, which appear in the digital output generated by them. This is similar to approaches reported in the literature for other components of the mobile phone, including the digital camera, the microphones or their RF transmission components. In this paper, the identification is performed through an inexpensive device made up of a platform that rotates the mobile phone under test and a fixed magnet positioned on the edge of the rotating platform. When the mobile phone passes in front of the fixed magnet, the built-in magnetometer is stimulated, and its digital output is recorded and analyzed. For each mobile phone, the experiment is repeated over six different days to ensure consistency in the results. A total of 10 phones of different brands and models or of the same model were used in our experiment. The digital output from the magnetometers is synchronized and correlated, and statistical features are extracted to generate a fingerprint of the built-in magnetometer and, consequently, of the mobile phone. A SVM machine learning algorithm is used to classify the mobile phones on the basis of the extracted statistical features. Our results show that inter-model classification (i.e., different models and brands classification) is possible with great accuracy, but intra-model (i.e., phones with different serial numbers and same model) classification is more challenging, the resulting accuracy being just slightly above random choice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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6805 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A Distance Detector with a Strip Magnetic MOSFET and Readout Circuit

by Guo-Ming Sung, Wen-Sheng Lin and Hsing-Kuang Wang

Sensors 2017, 17(1), 126; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17010126 - 10 Jan 2017

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 5463

Abstract

This paper presents a distance detector composed of two separated metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs), a differential polysilicon cross-shaped Hall plate (CSHP), and a readout circuit. The distance detector was fabricated using 0.18 μm 1P6M Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology to sense the magnetic induction perpendicular to the chip surface. The differential polysilicon CSHP enabled the magnetic device to not only increase the magnetosensitivity but also eliminate the offset voltage generated because of device mismatch and Lorentz force. Two MOSFETs generated two drain currents with a quadratic function of the differential Hall voltages at CSHP. A readout circuit—composed of a current-to-voltage converter, a low-pass filter, and a difference amplifier—was designed to amplify the current difference between two drains of MOSFETs. Measurements revealed that the electrostatic discharge (ESD) could be eliminated from the distance sensor by grounding it to earth; however, the sensor could be desensitized by ESD in the absence of grounding. The magnetic influence can be ignored if the magnetic body (human) stays far from the magnetic sensor, and the measuring system is grounded to earth by using the ESD wrist strap (Strap E-GND). Both ‘no grounding’ and ‘grounding to power supply’ conditions were unsuitable for measuring the induced Hall voltage. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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Review

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6217 KiB

Open AccessReview

Predicting Magnetoelectric Coupling in Layered and Graded Composites

by Mirza Bichurin, Vladimir Petrov and Alexander Tatarenko

Sensors 2017, 17(7), 1651; https://doi.org/10.3390/s17071651 - 19 Jul 2017

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4872

Abstract

Magnetoelectric (ME) interaction in magnetostrictive-piezoelectric multiferroic structures consists in inducing the electric field across the structure in an applied magnetic field and is a product property of magnetostriction and piezoelectricity in components. ME voltage coefficient that is the ratio of induced electric field to applied magnetic field is the key parameter of ME coupling strength. It has been known that the ME coupling strength is dictated by the product of the piezoelectric and piezomagnetic coefficients of initial phases. As a result, using the laminates with graded piezoelectric and piezomagnetic parameters are a new pathway to the increase in the ME coupling strength. Recently developed models predict stronger ME interactions in composites based on graded components compared to homogeneous ones. We discuss predicting the ME coupling strength for layered structures of homogeneous and compositionally graded magnetostrictive and piezoelectric components based on the graphs of ME voltage coefficients against composite parameters. For obtaining the graphs, we developed equations for ME output in applied magnetic field for possible modes of operation and layered structure configurations. In particular, our studies have been performed on low-frequency ME coupling, enhanced ME effect in electromechanical resonance (EMR) region for longitudinal and bending modes. Additionally, ME coupling at magnetic resonance in magnetostrictive component and at overlapping the EMR and magnetic resonance is investigated. We considered symmetric trilayers and asymmetric bilayers of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric components and multilayered structures based on compositionally stepped initial components. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Magnetoelectric Heterostructures and Sensors)

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