| abstract |
The invention concerns a miniaturized planar-design device for the determination of magnetic permeability, in particular that of ferromagnetic materials. The device proposed consists of coils which generate a magnetic flux, a flux-conducting structure and flux-detecting components. A change in the magnetic permeability in the vicinity of the device is detected by the flux-detecting components. Since all the components in the device, in particular the flux-conducting structure, are made of iron-nickel alloy using planar-design techniques, the whole device can be miniaturized to the sub-millimetre scale, making very high positional resolution possible. The planar design also makes it possible to mass-produce such detectors inexpensively. The detectors are suitable for use for position and/or angle measurement, as well as in the examination of materials to detect local magnetic properties. Mounting several of the devices in a row on a substrate enables magnetic patterns to be detected simply and rapidly. |