A Hall effect device includes a semiconductor region and at least three contacts to the semiconductor region, which are arranged in the semiconductor region substantially along a line or curve. The line or curve functionally separates the semiconductor region in a first region and a second region. The Hall effect device further including a first electrode that is electrically isolated against the first region and a second electrode that is electrically isolated against the second region. Two of the at least three contacts supply electric energy to the first region and to the second region, and the remaining at least one contact taps an output signal of the first region and/or the second region that responds to a magnetic field component.

The present disclosure relates to a magnetic field sensor circuit including at least one coil for measuring a magnetic field, a first stage amplifier circuit coupled to the coil and having a first transfer function with a pole at a first frequency, and a second stage amplifier circuit coupled to an output of the first stage amplifier circuit and having a second transfer function with a zero at the first frequency. In some embodiments, a temperature dependent frequency drift of the pole of the first transfer function corresponds to a temperature dependent frequency drift of the zero of the second transfer function.

A circuit for biasing and reading out a bridge sensor structure comprises at least two pairs of connection terminals. The circuit comprises an excitation signal generator for generating an excitation signal for biasing and/or exciting the bridge, in which the excitation signal is provided as a non-constant periodic continuous function of time, and a detection circuit for obtaining the sensor signal from the bridge sensor structure by electrically connecting the detection circuit to any pair of connection terminals while applying the excitation signal to another pair. The circuit comprises a switch unit for switching the electrical excitation signal and for switching the detection circuit. A controller controls the switch unit to switch the first pair from being connected to the excitation signal generator at a time when the generated excitation signal is in a predetermined signal range where the excitation signal value is substantially equal to zero.

A vertical Hall sensor includes a Hall effect region and a plurality of contacts formed in or on a surface of the Hall effect region. The plurality of contacts are arranged in a sequence along a path extending between a first end and a second end of the Hall effect region. The plurality of contacts includes at least four spinning current contacts and at least two supply-only contacts. The spinning current contacts are configured to alternatingly function as supply contacts and sense contacts according to a spinning current scheme. The at least four spinning current contacts are arranged along a central portion of the path. The at least two supply-only contacts are arranged on both sides of the central portion in a distributed manner and are configured to supply electrical energy to the Hall effect region according to an extension of the spinning current scheme.

A method and apparatus for sensing magnetic field strength with a pair of Hall effect sensors includes sampling a sensed voltage for the Hall effect sensors during a first phase and combining the sensed voltage. During a second phase, obtaining sensed voltages for the Hall effect sensors and combining the sensed voltages. The sensed voltages from the first phase and the second phase are combined to obtain a summed voltage and remove the Hall effect sensor and amplifier offset error value. In one arrangement, the summed voltage corresponds to the sensed Hall voltage of the first Hall effect sensor added to the Hall voltage of the second Hall effect sensor. In another arrangement, the summed voltage corresponds to the sensed Hall voltage of the first Hall effect sensor subtracted by the sensed Hall voltage of the second Hall effect sensor. Changes in the summed voltage with respect to a reference voltage are counted to determine the speed of a rotating shaft having magnets or a similar arrangement.

To provide a magnetic sensor circuit which does not output spike-like voltage errors to a signal processing circuit. A magnetic sensor circuit is provided which is configured so as to output an output signal to a signal processing circuit through a plurality of hall elements driven by a first switch circuit and a second switch circuit controlled by a second control circuit and in which the first switch circuit controls timings at which spikes occur in the output signal of each of the hall elements in such a manner that the timings are not the same, and the second switch circuit selects and outputs an output signal having a period of a timing free of the occurrence of a spike.

A current sensor includes a substrate including a through-hole and at least one groove around the through-hole, a primary conductor extending into the through-hole and through the substrate, and through which a current to be measured flows, at least one magnetic sensor that is mounted on a first surface of the substrate and detects a strength of a magnetic field generated by the current to be measured flowing through the primary conductor, and at least one magnetic body surrounding the primary conductor and including a portion extending in the at least one groove to be fixed to the substrate.

A Hall electromotive force signal detection circuit suppresses variations of spike-like error signals that become obstacles to high-precision detection of Hall electromotive force signals. To this end, in the Hall electromotive force signal detection circuit driving plural Hall elements by spinning current techniques and using plural transconductance amplifiers, a reference signal Vcom is supplied from a feedback network controller to a Hall signal feedback network that performs a feedback control so that common voltages of Hall electromotive force signals from the plural Hall elements match with the reference signal Vcom and to an output signal feedback network that feeds back a voltage obtained by dividing a difference between an output voltage and the reference signal Vcom. In this manner, the variations of spike signals are suppressed.

Embodiments related to magnetic current sensors, systems and methods. In an embodiment, a magnetic current sensor integrated in an integrated circuit (IC) and housed in an IC package comprises an IC die formed to present at least three magnetic sense elements on a first surface, a conductor, and at least one slot formed in the conductor, wherein a first end of the at least one slot and at least one of the magnetic sense elements are relatively positioned such that the at least one of the magnetic sense elements is configured to sense an increased magnetic field induced in the conductor proximate the first end of the at least one slot.

A magnetic sensor that includes a Hall element; a switch circuit configured to switch a direction of a drive current supplied to the Hall element between a first direction and a second direction; a magnetic field detection circuit configured to execute a detection operation for detecting a target magnetic field acting on the Hall element, based on a first difference between a Hall voltage generated in the Hall element when the drive current is supplied to the Hall element in the first direction and a Hall voltage generated in the Hall element when the drive current is supplied to the Hall element in the second direction; and a test magnetic field generation circuit configured to generate a test magnetic field different from the target magnetic field in a test operation.