An assembly has a base structure, a rotatable structure, a first magnet coupled to the base structure, a second magnet coupled to the rotatable structure, and a magnetic field sensor. The magnetic field sensor can identify at least one condition (i.e., position) of the assembly.

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.

A sensing element is provided including a magnetic sensor that detects a first magnetic field component, at least one AC-magnetic field generator that applies at least one additional magnetic field component at a given frequency to the magnetic sensor, where the first magnetic field component and the at least one additional magnetic field component are orthogonal to each other, and at least one demodulator using the given frequency to determine a sensitivity of the sensing element respective to the at least one additional magnetic field component. Also, several methods of operating such sensing element are provided.

Embodiments relate to vertical Hall effect devices comprising Hall effect structures with three contacts in each Hall effect region. In one embodiment, the contacts are interconnected with terminals such that the Hall effect device has symmetry and nominally identical internal resistances in the absence of externally applied magnetic fields. Embodiments are capable of operating in multiple operating phases, such that spinning can be used to measure field redundantly and improve magnetic field measurement accuracy.

An active switching rectifier circuit uses a MOSFET and applies a current based control to turn the MOSFET on and off. The MOSFET has its source and drain connected between an AC phase or neutral line and the DC output. A current detection and control circuit has an input current conductor coupled in series with the source-drain current of the MOSFET; it outputs a switching control signal based on the current in its input conductor and applies the signal to the gate of the MOSFET for on/off control. A Hall-effect switch may be used in the current detection and control circuit. The rectifier may also include a voltage supply circuit for supplying a DC voltage to the current detection and control circuit. The rectifier circuit can be adapted for various configurations including single-phase half-wave, center-tap dual-phase full-wave, single-phase full-wave, and three-phase full-wave.

A position sensing system has a trim unit to trim hall voltages generated by a first sensor and a second sensor in response to an excitation current, to compensate a non-orthogonality of the first sensor and the second sensor.

A vertical Hall effect sensor having three Hall effect regions interconnected in a ring can be operated in a spinning scheme. Each Hall effect region has three contacts: the first Hall effect region includes first, second, and third contacts; the second Hall effect region has fourth, fifth, and sixth contacts, and the third Hall effect region has seventh, eighth, and ninth contacts. Interconnections between the Hall effect regions are provided such that a first terminal is connected to a third contact, a second interconnection is arranged between the second and fourth contacts, a third terminal is connected to the sixth contact, a fourth interconnection is arranged between the fifth and seventh contacts, a fifth terminal is connected to the ninth contact, and a sixth interconnection is arranged between the first and eighth contacts.

A Hall effect sensor device may be provided, including one or more sensor structures. Each sensor structure may include: a base layer having a first conductivity type; a Hall plate region having a second conductivity type opposite from the first conductivity type arranged above the base layer; a first isolating region arranged around and adjoining the Hall plate region, and contacting the base layer; a plurality of second isolating regions arranged within the Hall plate region; and a plurality of terminal regions arranged within the Hall plate region. The first and second isolating regions may include electrically insulating material, and each neighboring pair of terminal regions may be electrically isolated from each other by one of the second isolating regions.

A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate having a surface perpendicular to the first direction; a vertical Hall element formed in the semiconductor substrate, and including a magnetosensitive portion having a depth in the first direction, a width in the second direction, and a length in the third direction; and an excitation wiring extending in the third direction and disposed above the semiconductor substrate and at a position that overlaps the center position of the width of the magnetosensitive portion, and the value u derived from Expression (1) is 0.6 or more: $\begin{array}{c}u=\frac{{\tan }^{-1}\left(\frac{W+\mathrm{Wc}}{2h}\right)-{\tan }^{-1}\left(\frac{W-\mathrm{Wc}}{2h}\right)}{2{\tan }^{-1}(\frac{\mathrm{Wc}}{2h}}\end{array}$

A vertical Hall sensor structure having a substrate layer, a semiconductor area of a first conductivity type, at least a first, a second and a third semiconductor contact area of the first conductivity type extending from an upper surface of the semiconductor area into the semiconductor area, and at least a first semiconductor contact area of a second conductivity type, wherein the semiconductor contact areas of the first conductivity type are spaced apart from each other and a metal connection contact layer is arranged on each semiconductor contact area of the first conductivity type. The first semiconductor contact area of the second conductivity type is adjacent to the first semiconductor contact area of the first conductivity type or is spaced at a distance of at most 0.2 μm from the first semiconductor contact area of the first conductivity type.