Patent attributes
A magnetic angle sensor 100 comprises a bulk substrate; a circular well 101 provided upon the bulk substrate; an even numbered plurality of electrodes 102a-102x spaced at regular intervals in a ring formation over the circular well; and a pair of biasing electrodes for selectively applying a progressive succession of differently directed bias currents 104 to and/or using the said ring of electrodes 102 to provide a succession of Hall potentials indicative of the relative magnitude of successive differently oriented magnetic field components B in the plane of the magnetic angle sensor 100. The sensor 100 operates cyclically and the full progressive succession cycle involves applying and/or using each electrode 102 in the ring at least once for applying a bias current and/or sensing a Hall potential. In such a manner, the full cycle comprises the progressive succession of the axis of measurement of the sensor 100 through a complete rotation within the plane of the sensor. By monitoring the phase of the generated signal or monitoring the zero crossings of the generated signal the orientation of the magnetic field coin the plane of the sensor can be determined.
