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 Published by IOP Publishing for Sissa Medialab
Received: March 20, 2017
Accepted: May 4, 2017
Published: May 15, 2017

TECHNICAL REPORT

The low cost Proton Precession Magnetometer developed

2017 JINST 12 T05002

at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism

P. Mahavarkar,1,2 S. Singh, S. Labde, V. Dongre and A. Patil

Instrumentation Division, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism,
Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India,
Plot No. 05, Sector 18, New Panvel, Navi Mumbai 410218, India

E-mail: mahavarkarprasanna@gmail.com

Abstract: Proton magnetometers are the oldest scalar magnetometers. The first commercial
units were produced in early 1960s as portable instruments. In continuation airborne instruments
appeared with optimized speed of readings and sensitivity, large sensors etc. Later development
of Overhauser and optically pumped magnetometers has eliminated Proton magnetometers from
airborne surveys. However they remain very popular in various ground surveys and observatories.
With this primary purpose of generating the ground based magnetic data, the Indian Institute
of Geomagnetism (IIG) for the last 3 decades have been developing low cost Proton Precession
Magnetometers (PPM). Beginning with the 1 nT PPM which has undergone several changes in
design, the successor PM7 the advanced version has been successfully developed by the institute
and is installed at various observatories of the institute. PM7 records the total field ‘F’ with accuracy
of 0.1 nT and a sampling rate of 10 seconds/sample. This article briefly discusses the design and
development of this IIG make PM7 and compares the data recorded by this instrument with one
of the commercially available Overhauser magnetometer in the world market. The quality of data
recorded by PM7 is in excellent agreement with the Overhauser. With the available quality of
data generated by this instrument, PM7 is an affordable PPM for scientific institutions, schools and
colleges intending to carry out geomagnetic studies. The commercial cost of PM7 is ≈ 20% of the
cost of Overhauser available in market.

Keywords: Manufacturing; Detector design and construction technologies and materials

1Corresponding author.
2Mobile phone: +91 9538486197.

c 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd and Sissa Medialab srl

doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/05/T05002
Contents

1 The PM7 operating principle 2

2 PM7 design & development 2

3 The sensor 3

2017 JINST 12 T05002

4 Sensor installation 5

5 The signal sensing and the signal processing unit 6

6 Data recorded by PM7 and Overhauser 7

7 Future plans 8

A Proton Precession Magnetometer is an instrument that measures the scalar intensity of the
local magnetic field and relies upon the proton-precession measurement technique. This is a well
established technique and is successfully implemented in classical proton precession magnetometers
and the Overhauser magnetometers. By the virtue of the Overhauser principles the Overhauser
magnetometer always has advantages over the classical proton precession magnetometers which do
not work on the principle of Overhauser effect. The sampling rate, accuracy and power consumption
is always better in case of these magnetometers. But it also has disadvantages. The polarization
of radical solution in the probe of an Overhauser magnetometer always needs a radio frequency
to be excited to get the free induction decay (FID) signal. In some exploration projects, such as
gradient measurement at close range, instruments will interfere with each other, which leads to
the error of magnetic field measurement; when the Overhauser magnetometer works with other
systems, it will also affect the entire system, and it is not easy to completely shield the radio
frequency. In addition, since the Overhauser magnetometer is expensive, in a multipoint weak
magnetic monitoring application, the cost is high. On the other hand, due to the different principles,
the proton magnetometer has no mutual interference problems and is cheaper than the Overhauser
magnetometer [1]. Utilizing the proton precession principles, PM7 has been designed to have an
accuracy of 0.1 nT, a minimum 5 sec sampling rate and 15W power consumption. However the data
recorded by PM7 is in excellent agreement with the Overhauser. This quality of data generated by
PM7 is achieved with a low cost sensor design and a less complicated electronics.

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 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 1. PM7 unit with the sensor.

1 The PM7 operating principle

PM7 utilizes the precession of spinning protons or nuclei of the hydrogen atoms in a sample of
Hexane to measure the total magnetic intensity. The spinning protons in this sample are temporarily
aligned or polarized by application of a uniform magnetic field (hundreds of Gauss) generated by
passing a current of 1-2 A through a coil of inductance 30 mH [2]. After 7-8 seconds, maximum
number of protons are aligned in the direction of the applied field. When the current is stopped (the
external field is switched off suddenly), the spin of the proton causes them to precess about the direc-
tion of the ambient or Earth’s magnetic field. The precessing protons then generate a small signal (an
induced emf) in the same coil which is used to polarize them, whose frequency is precisely propor-
tional to the total magnetic field intensity and independent of the orientation of the coil. This emf is of
the order of a few micro volts. It is amplified to get an output of 5-6 V. After passing through the PLL
and processing by the micro-controller, frequency is determined from this signal and then displayed.
Also the value of total field is available on serial port, to be stored by using third party Data loggers.

2 PM7 design & development

PM7 comprises of the following 2 units:

• The sensor

• The signal sensing and the signal processing unit (electronics)

The sensor is a separate assembly which is placed in the field where measurements are to be
made and the signal sensing and signal processing unit (the electronics) is an assembly of 2 PCB
cards housed inside a parallelepipedic metal box referred to as the control unit. Figure 1 shows the
PM7 set up.
The electronics included mainly consists of the stages like the excitation of protons, tuning
of signal, the amplifier, the phase locked loop (PLL) and the micro-controller with associated

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 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 2. PM7 block diagram.

peripherals. One PCB card is designed to accommodate the excitation, amplifier and the phase
locked loop (PLL). The other card accommodates the micro-controller and the peripherals.
Figure 2 shows the layout of the PM7 in the form of a block diagram. First the sensor design
is briefly discussed which is followed by the signal sensing and signal processing unit.

3 The sensor

The proton signal is very weak; hence a specific designed sensor (figure 3) is needed to pickup such
low amplitude signal. The technical specifications of the sensor design are not mentioned here.
The sensor used for this purpose is of passive type and essentially works on the principle of proton
precession phenomenon. It is a well-sealed cylindrical housing of about 1000 cc filled with a proton
rich fluid [5] such as Hexane (C6 H14 ). A pair of coils connected in series is placed inside the sensor.
The sensor coil is the most critical component of the system. It’s inductance and resistance
determine how fast it can be switched on and off, how much current it can carry, and how sensitively
it can detect the weak oscillating magnetic field produced by the sample [3].
According to the theory of operation of the proton magnetometer, the total intensity, measured
as the frequency of precession, is independent of the orientation of the sensor. The amplitude of the
signal, however, does vary (as sin2 θ) with the angle between the direction of the applied field within
the sensor and the Earth’s field direction. Variation of signal amplitude does not normally affect the

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 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 3. The PM7 sensor.

Figure 4. A pair of sensor coils.

readings unless there is simply insufficient signal to be measured accurately, i.e., a minimum signal
amplitude is required above which a variation in amplitude does not affect the readings.
Ideally, the applied field in the sensor should be at right angles to the Earth’s field direction.
The direction of the applied field is governed by the configuration of the polarizing coils in the
sensor which are commonly either solenoids (cylindrical) or toroids (ring or doughnut-shaped).
The solenoid produces an applied field parallel to its axis, whereas the toroid produces a field which
is ring-shaped about the axis of the toroid. Solenoids are used because they produce somewhat
higher signal than a toroid [4]. In the ideal case, the solenoid axis should be held perpendicular to
the field direction for maximum signal amplitude. Also the solenoid configuration has one great
advantage. The advantage is that it is very easy to wind a solenoid.

–4–
 Figure 5. The noise cancellation model in sensor coils.

2017 JINST 12 T05002

A major problem that needs to be considered in designing a sensor coil is the environmental
noise as this noise is picked up by the sensor coil. This problem is overcome by using two identical
sensor coils which are wound in opposite directions with respect to each other and connected in
series. They are mounted parallel to each other so that external noise common to both coils is
canceled out (figure 4).
As shown in figure 5a, the two loops in sensor are connected back to back and polarizing
current is made to pass through both coils. The loops are wound in opposite direction which serves
a special advantage in noise cancellation. As the loops are connected back to back, the precession
signal gets added up as shown in figure 5b. The noise voltage induced due to stray magnetic fields
(magnetic lines) induce voltages of same polarity in both the coils and cancel each other as shown
in figure 5c. If the coil inductance and dimensions are well matched, noise cancellation takes place
but the induced signal gets added in the coils. Hence stray noise pickups are eliminated in such a
sensor design while the signal is boosted. Using this noise cancellation technique, two anti wound
Cu-coil loops are kept immersed in the working liquid (figure 6). The solenoid geometry allows
easy access to and quick replacement of the sample. The sensor coil acquires the proton precession
signal from the sample which is further amplified and digitized by electronic console.
The sensor is separated by a cable from electronics (console unit) to avoid its stray magnetic
fields.

4 Sensor installation

While measuring the geomagnetic field, the sensor is always mounted 5-6 feet high above ground
level with help of any nonmagnetic staff and pedestal (wooden stool, brass or aluminum rods are
preferred) (figure 7). This is so because the magnetic anomalies present in Earth’s crust and its
interior create magnetic gradients in geomagnetic field to be measured thus distorting it. Due to these
magnetic gradients the signal decays faster than usual. In such a case the precession time reduces.
This ultimately leads to added difficulties in measuring the field in such a small span of time. To avoid
this problem the sensor is always elevated at some height above ground level. This gives optimum
signal precession performance. Thus the overall performance of sensor is collectively enhanced.

–5–
 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 6. A pair of coils connected in series is placed inside the sensor filled with the working fluid.

PM7 Sensor Overhauser Sensor

Figure 7. The sensor is mounted 5-6 feet above the ground level to improve the sensing action of the coil.

5 The signal sensing and the signal processing unit

Signal sensing is done in two parts (figure 8); the first of these is the polarization of the sample in
which the working liquid is subjected to a strong field in order to magnetize (i.e., line up) the protons.
The second part is the actual measurement of the precession frequency in order to determine the
external magnetic field.
During polarization, a large current of 1 A is passed through the solenoid to generate a magnetic
field which is of the order of hundreds of Gauss which will line up the protons along coil axis. A
polarization current of about 10 sec duration is fed through the relay to the sensor coil. The function

–6–
of relay here is to switch between polarization and sensing electronics.
The actual geomagnetic signal information picked up by the sensor in form of sinusoidal
variations of proton precession is extremely weak in amplitude. It typically ranges in few micro
volts and lasts for about for a few seconds. Therefore, the signal is tuned and then amplified by a
special low noise amplifier.
The output of the amplifier is required to be converted to a square wave to be used as an input
to the PLL. For this a zero crossing method is implemented by a phase comparator, designed using
another OPAMP.
The PLL is a high Q filter [8]. It is a negative feedback system whose function is to force a
voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), to be “coherent” with the input reference signal in both phase

2017 JINST 12 T05002

and frequency. By virtue of its inherent design, PLL is able to lock firmly on to any desired signal
and then it can easily hold on to that particular frequency. Therefore the frequency of desired signal
can be easily recovered from a noisy signal using phase locked loop circuit and can be multiplied
by a suitable factor.
Although multiplication factor in the PLL reduces the measurement time and increases the
measurement accuracy it cannot be increased indefinitely to achieve an increase in measurement
accuracy.
Thus to achieve higher accuracy it is necessary to use different measurement techniques. One
way is to measure the period of the precession signal by recording the zero crossings of the sinusoidal
precession signal. Because of the noise riding over the signal there is an error at zero crossing
which introduces an error ∆T in the measurement of period T. This error is given by
1
∆T =
ωR
where ω is the angular frequency and R is the peak to peak signal to noise ratio. A least square
estimation technique is used to treat this error at zero crossings. Time for N number of periods can
be written as
t0 + pTc = t p
where p = 0, 1, 2, . . . , N and t0 is the uncertainty in the timing of the first crossing. The techniques
used derive Tc in such a way that its variance is as small as possible. The standard technique
used attempts to minimize the mean square difference of the actual zero crossing times and those
computed from the estimated fit. The estimated period can be written as [7]
S A SE − SB SD
TC =
S A SC − SB2

p2
         
N N N N N
where S A =
Í 1 ; SB =
Í p
; SC =
Í
; SD =
Í tp
; SE =
Í pt p
.
2 2 2 2 2
p=0 σ p p=0 σ p p=0 σ p p=0 σ p p=0 σ p

6 Data recorded by PM7 and Overhauser

The plots below compare the quality of data recorded by PM7 (in black line) and Overhauser (in
red line) installed at Alibaug Magnetic Observatory (18.64°N, 72.87°E geographic coordinates) for

–7–
 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 8. The PM7 signal sensing and signal detection PCB’s (Controlling electronics).

Table 1. IIG specifications for PM7 magnetometer.

Specifications PM7
Environmental 0 to 60° Celsius
Operating Range (Tuning: manual mode) 30,000 to 80,000 nT
Input/Output All control and communication by RS-232 link
Power 12 V, 1250 mA peak (during polarization), 200 mA standby
Accuracy 0.1 nT
Sampling rate Optional (Default 10 seconds)
Display Monochrome character display (20 character × 4 line)
Weight (Console and Sensor) 4.9 kg
Console 2.6 kg
Sensor 2.3 kg

a few typical days 15 February 2015 (figure 9a), 15 March 2015 (figure 9b) and 15 April 2015
(figure 9c). Here the variation of total field in nT versus time in hours is plotted. Similarity can
be readily seen from these figures; however the offset in the recorded field is due to the different
location of sensors in the same observatory under study.
The total ‘F’ near the equator (figure 10) is in the known range of 42,000 to 43,000 nT [6] which
can be observed from the recorded data. All the curves follow a similar trend, however some spikes
are seen in the PM7 data. This is attributed to low sampling rate of 1 sample/minute for PM7 com-
pared to the 60 samples/minute for the Overhauser. The quality of data recorded by PM7 is generated
with a low cost electronics and sensor design. Table 1 gives the technical specifications of PM7.

7 Future plans

We are in a process of popularizing PM7 among the scientific community, schools, colleges and
institutes of higher education in India. Although immense efforts have gone into the development

–8–
 (a)

2017 JINST 12 T05002

(b)

(c)

Figure 9. The quality of data recorded by IIG PPM (PM7) is compared with the data recorded by the
Overhauser magnetometer.

of the PPM, the cost is kept marginally low (≈ $4000) to ensure that it is affordable to budget
conscious users. Further towards the design, efforts are being made in the existing design to
improve the accuracy and power efficiency. Also the portability of instrument is being considered
for development with battery pack included in the console.

–9–
 2017 JINST 12 T05002
Figure 10. Isodynamic map showing total intensity or strength of Earth’s magnetic field, with higher values
indicating greater intensity.

References

[1] H. Dong, H. Liu, J. Ge, Z. Yuan and Z. Zhao, A high-precision frequency measurement algorithm for
FID signal of proton magnetometer, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Measur. 65 (2016) 898.
[2] W. Bayot, Practical guidelines for building a magnetometer by hobbyists; part 1: introduction to
magnetometer technology, version 1.2, 22 June 2008.
[3] Hackaday.io, Details — PyPPM: a proton precession magnetometer for all,
https://hackaday.io/project/1376-pyppm-a-proton-precession-magnetometer-for-all.
[4] S. Breiner, Applications manual for portable magnetometers, Geometrics 2190 Fortune Drive San Jose
CA 95131 U.S.A.
[5] J. Jankowski and C. Suckdorff, Guide for magnetic measurements and observatory practice, Warsaw
Poland, (1996).
[6] Avian navigation and orientation webpage, http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/nav_orient.htm
[7] A. Patil and R. Rajaram, Numerical techniques for proton magnetometers, in Proceedings of the X th
IAGA Workshop on Geomagnetic Instruments Data Acquisition and Processing, 15–24 April 2002.
[8] Analog Devices, Fundamentals of Phase Locked Loops (PLLs), Tutorial MT-086, (2009).

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