In this work, we propose solutions based on engineering of III-V heterostructures to develop new types of semiconductor magnetic sensors. These micro-Hall sensors use the properties of a 2D electron gas and the benefit of pseudomorphic material, in which both the alloy composition and the built-in strain offer additional degrees of freedom for band structure tailoring, to exhibit high magnetic sensitivity, good linearity, low temperature coefficient and high resolution. With the growth optimization which is described, two pseudomorphic In_0.75Ga_0.25As/In_0.52Al_0.48As heterostructures were grown on a semi- insulating InP substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. To understand better the influence of the heterostructure design on its electronic properties, a model involving the self-consistent solution of the Poisson and Schrodinger equations using the Fermi-Dirac statistics has been developed. These results have been used to optimize the structure design. A magnetic sensitivity of 346 V/AT with a temperature coefficient of -230 ppm/ degree(s)C between -80 degree(s)C and 85 degree(s)C has been obtained. The device show good linearity against magnetic field and also against the supply current. High signal-to-noise ratios corresponding to minimal magnetic field of 350 nT/Hz^1/2 at 100 Hz and 120 nT/Hz^1/2 at 1 kHz have been measured.

Date Published: 26 April 1996
PDF: 5 pages
Proc. SPIE 2779, 3rd International Conference on Intelligent Materials and 3rd European Conference on Smart Structures and Materials, (26 April 1996); doi: 10.1117/12.237127

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2779:
3rd International Conference on Intelligent Materials and 3rd European Conference on Smart Structures and Materials
Pierre Francois Gobin; Jacques Tatibouet, Editor(s)