A magnetic field sensor includes a circular vertical Hall (CVH) sensing element to produce a signal representing an external magnetic field as detected by the CVH sensing element, a sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter to generate a converted signal, modulators to produce quadrature modulated signals from the converted signal, and a processor to produce an estimated angle of the external magnetic field using the quadrature modulated signals. An arctangent function may be used to calculate the estimated angle. A sliding window integration scheme may be used over one or more CVH cycles.

A magnetic field sensor comprises a circular vertical Hall (CVH) sensing element having a plurality of vertical Hall elements. A CVH output stage is included comprising one or more of drive circuits to drive the plurality of vertical Hall elements and produce an analog signal representing a strength of an external magnetic field as detected by the plurality of vertical Hall elements. An analog-to-digital converter is coupled to receive the analog signal and produce a digital signal. A quadrature modulator circuit is coupled to the digital signal and operable to generate a plurality of quadrature modulated signals. A processor stage receives signals representative of the plurality of quadrature modulated signals and computes an estimated angle of the external magnetic field.

A magnetic field sensor element 1 includes a light emitter 10 emitting a first linearly polarized light, a first optical element 20 emitting a first linearly polarized wave and the second linearly polarized wave in response to a first linearly polarized light incident, and emitting a second linearly polarized light in response to a third linearly polarized wave and the a linearly polarized wave incident, at least one pair of magnetic field sensor elements 50 capable of disposing in a predetermined magnetic field across the measured conductor, having a light transmissive, changing the phase of transmitted light in accordance with the magnetic field, and fixing a relative position therebetween, an optical path 30 including a first optical path propagating the first linearly polarized wave and the fourth linearly polarized wave, and a second optical path propagating the second linearly polarized wave and the third linearly polarized wave, and connected to the first optical element and the magnetic field sensor element, a detected signal generator 60 outputting a detected signal corresponding to the magnetic field, by receiving two components of the second linearly polarized light, and converting to the electrical signal, and an optical branching element transmitting the first linearly polarized light to the first optical element and branching the second linearly polarized light to the detected signal generator.

There is provided a magnetic noise rejection apparatus which includes: a plurality of cancellation coils arranged near a target object; a plurality of magnetic sensors disposed inside the respective cancellation coils; an adder circuit configured to take a sum of outputs of the plurality of magnetic sensors; and a feedback control circuit configured to supply the cancellation coils with such a common feedback drive current that the sum of the outputs of the magnetic sensors is equal to a sum of outputs of the magnetic sensors under a zero magnetic field.

Embodiments relate to systems and methods for reducing errors in sensor devices and systems. In embodiments, the sensor devices comprise magnetic field sensor devices, such as ordinary or vertical Hall sensor devices, and the error to be reduced is a residual offset error, though in other embodiments other sensor devices can be used and/or other types of errors can be targeted for reduction or elimination. In one embodiment, at least two such sensor devices not electrically coupled with one another are sequentially operated in a spinning current-type mode such that an individual output signal from each of the at least two sensor devices is obtained. A total output signal can then be calculated, such as by averaging or otherwise combining the individual output signals from each sensor device.

A magnetic sensor arrangement for determining information indicative of characteristics of a mechanical component has a first magnetic sensor to sense a signal associated with a periodic changing magnetic field generated by relative movement of the mechanical component and the magnetic sensor arrangement, a second magnetic sensor to sense that signal, wherein the first sensor is arranged a fixed distance from the second sensor, and a determination unit coupled to the first and second sensors to receive output signals of the first and second sensors. The output signal of the first sensor is phase-shifted to the output signal of the second sensor, to compare the output signals for determining the absolute phase of the signal associated with the periodic changing magnetic field, and to determine information indicative of characteristics of the mechanical component based on the determined absolute phase of the signal associated with the periodic changing magnetic field.

A magnetic field measuring device with a holding body and a plurality of magnetoelectric cantilever sensors, each of which is designed to output one electrical voltage signal while it bends in the presence of a magnetic field, the cantilever sensors being non-positively connected or bonded to the holding body.

A magnitude and direction of at least one of a reset current and a second stabilization current (that produces a reset field and a second stabilization field, respectively) is determined that, when applied to an array of magnetic sense elements, minimizes the total required stabilization field and reset field during the operation of the magnetic sensor and the measurement of the external field. Therefore, the low field sensor operates optimally (with the highest sensitivity and the lowest power consumption) around the fixed external field operating point. The fixed external field is created by other components in the sensor device housing (such as speaker magnets) which have a high but static field with respect to the low (earth's) magnetic field that describes orientation information.

A vertical Hall sensor circuit comprises an arrangement comprising a vertical Hall effect region of a first doping type, formed within a semiconductor substrate and having a stress dependency with respect to a Hall effect-related electrical characteristic. The vertical Hall sensor circuit further comprises a stress compensation circuit which comprises at least one of a lateral resistor arrangement and a vertical resistor arrangement. The lateral resistor arrangement has a first resistive element and a second resistive element, which are parallel to a surface of the semiconductor substrate and orthogonal to each other, for generating a stress-dependent lateral resistor arrangement signal on the basis of a reference signal inputted to the stress compensation circuit. The vertical resistor arrangement has a third resistive element of the first doping type for vertically conducting an electric current flow, for generating a stress-dependent vertical resistor arrangement signal on the basis of the reference signal. The vertical Hall sensor circuit further comprises a first circuit for providing a first signal to the arrangement, the first signal being based on at least one of the stress-dependent lateral resistor arrangement signal and the stress-dependent vertical resistor arrangement signal.

An integrated circuit includes at least one first magnetic field sensing element including at least one first magnetoresistance element configured to provide an output signal of the integrated circuit in response to a detected magnetic field. The integrated circuit also includes at least one second magnetic field sensing element including at least one second magnetoresistance element configured to have a characteristic indicative of a stress condition. A method for detecting a stress condition in an integrated circuit is also provided.