Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering

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Common-mode magnetic field rejection-type

magneto-impedance gradiometer

Takashi Takiya & Tsuyoshi Uchiyama

To cite this article: Takashi Takiya & Tsuyoshi Uchiyama (2017) Common-mode magnetic field
rejection-type magneto-impedance gradiometer, Journal of International Council on Electrical
Engineering, 7:1, 1-6, DOI: 10.1080/22348972.2016.1271505

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/22348972.2016.1271505

© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa

UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis
Group

Published online: 26 Dec 2016.

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Journal of International Council on Electrical Engineering, 2016
VOL. 7, NO. 1, 1–6
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/22348972.2016.1271505

OPEN ACCESS

Common-mode magnetic field rejection-type magneto-impedance gradiometer

Takashi Takiya and Tsuyoshi Uchiyama
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

We have developed a common-mode magnetic field rejection-type magneto-impedance (MI) Received 29 September 2016
gradiometer to reduce the common magnetic field applied to the sensing- and reference-type Accepted 2 December 2016
MI elements. Compared with a general-type MI gradiometer, the magnetic noise spectral density KEYWORDS
was lower and the noise at 60 Hz related to the power source line was reduced by 1/8. Using the Magnetic sensor;
developed sensor, we successfully detected a microscopic 5 nT magnetic signal in a common-mode gradiometer; magneto-
magnetic field that was 14 times larger. We expect this will lead to a simpler method of detecting impedance effect; common-
microscopic magnetic signals such as biomagnetism without the need for magnetic shielding. mode magnetic field

1. Introduction implementing it in a differential output circuit (i.e. gradi-

Magneto-impedance (MI) sensors can detect microscopic
magnetic fields by utilizing the MI effect [1–3]. In the MI
effect, the impedance of an amorphous wire changes signif-
icantly when a high-frequency current passes through the
wire [2]. A complementary metal–oxide–­semiconductor
(CMOS)-MI sensor that can discriminate magnetic poles
by measuring the voltage induced in a pickup coil wound
around an amorphous wire was developed in 2002 [4]. The
R-C circuit in this sensor differentiates the ­square-wave
voltage which is generated by the CMOS multivibrator,
and the CMOS inverter converts the pulse voltage into
a current that is passed through the amorphous wire.
The induced voltage in the pickup coil is detected with a
­synchronization detecting circuit.
High-sensitivity MI sensors have been studied for use
in biomagnetism measurements and other applications
[5–7]. In the measurement of microscopic magnetic sig-
nals ranging from nano- to picoteslas, we need to reduce
the influence of environmental magnetic noise, and
using magnetic shielding is the most common method.
However, depending on the microscopic magnetic signal
being detected, a high-magnetic shielding factor may be
required. Furthermore, increasing sensing system size
and higher installation costs are problems. MI sensors
have a high magnetic resolution and can operate stably
under geomagnetism. Therefore, this type of sensor can
be used to reduce a spatially uniform magnetic noise by
ometer). We have been developing a first-order MI gra-
diometer using sensing- and reference-type MI elements
[8,9]. The magnetic field detection properties of both MI
elements would correspond in an ideal MI gradiometer,
but it is difficult to make both elements completely cor-
respond, and so the difference in the output of the MI
elements is output as noise.
In this study, we developed a common-mode magnetic
field rejection-type (CMMFR-type) MI gradiometer that
can reduce the variation in the magnetic field around
the sensor head through feedback of the common-mode
magnetic field (i.e. the magnetic field applied to both
the s­ ensing- and reference-type MI elements). We have
confirmed the inhibitory effects of this new type of MI
gradiometer against external magnetic noise.
2. MI gradiometer
The developed MI gradiometer is shown in Figure 1. The
MI gradiometer is composed of a pair of CMOS-MI sen-
sors. A square-wave voltage generated by a pulse generator
is differentiated by CMOS inverters, and a high-frequency
current is passed through amorphous wires in the sens-
ing- and reference-type MI elements. The MI gradiometer
outputs the difference in the voltage induced in the two
pickup coils. The amorphous wire (Aichi Steel Co., Ltd.)
used in the sensor head is 25 μm in diameter and 40 mm
in length. One MI element consists of a pickup coil wound

CONTACT Takashi Takiya takiya.takashi@a.mbox.nagoya-u.ac.jp

© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
2  T. TAKIYA AND T. UCHIYAMA

directly around an amorphous wire. Each pickup coil has

700 turns and is 10 mm in length. The baseline of both
MI elements is 30 mm.
Figure 2(a) shows the DC magnetic field detection
properties of the MI elements. We applied a DC magnetic
field of −5 to 5 μT to the sensor head with a Helmholtz
coil (diameter: 400 mm, distance of coils: 200 mm). The
DC magnetic field sensitivities (i.e. gradients) of the
sensing- and reference-type MI elements are 0.038 and
0.0391 V μT−1, respectively. The difference in sensitivity
is about 3%, and the zero-magnetic-field intercepts differ
by 0.03 V. In the MI gradiometer, the difference in the
DC output voltage generated by the disparity in the DC
magnetic sensitivity of each MI element is removed with
an integrating circuit. Figure 2(b) shows the AC magnetic
field detection properties when we applied an AC magnetic
field (amplitude: 0.5 μT, frequency: 10 Hz) to the sensor
head. Since V1 and V2 (the output voltages of the sens-
ing- and reference-type MI elements, respectively) almost
corresponded, this MI sensor is ideal as a gradiometer.
The magnetic sensitivity of the sensing-type MI element
is 44 × 106 V T−1 in a static magnetic field; the sensitivity
Figure 1. MI gradiometer. (a) MI gradiometer circuit board. (b)
increased by a factor of 1167 with the use of differential
Block diagram.
amplifiers. Dividing the magnetic sensitivity of the sensing
element by the distance (30 mm) between the MI elements
gives the magnetic sensitivity of the MI gradiometer as
1.48 × 109 V T−1 m−1. The output of the MI gradiometer
ΔB is given by
ΔB = Bsen − Bref , (1)
where Bsen and Bref are the magnetic signals detected by
the sensing- and reference-type MI elements, respectively,
calculated by dividing V1 and V2 by the sensitivity of the
respective MI element.

3. CMMFR-type MI gradiometer
The CMMFR-type MI gradiometer is an MI gradiom-
eter with a feedback coil around the sensor head. This
type of MI gradiometer can apply the induced voltage of
the reference-type pickup coil to the feedback coil via a
voltage-to-current converter. Consequently, we consider
that the feedback coil can reduce the influence of exter-
nal magnetic noise around the sensor head by feeding
back the common-mode magnetic field HCMMF. A block
diagram of the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer is shown
in Figure 3.

3.1. Feedback coil

Figure 2. Magnetic field detection properties of the MI elements.
The dimensions of the feedback coil are shown in Figure 4.
(a) DC magnetic field detection properties. (b) AC magnetic field
detection properties. The feedback coil is a solenoidal coil 25 mm in diameter,

Figure 3. Block diagram of the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer.
Figure 4. Dimensions of the feedback coil.
Figure 5. Block diagram of the voltage-to-current converter.
80 mm in length, and with 800 turns. The centre of the
sensor head is located at the centre of the feedback coil
at point P. The feedback coil can apply a reverse-phase
magnetic field opposing HCMMF to the sensor head via the
voltage-to-current converter as shown in Figure 5. The
current through the feedback coil I and the magnetic field
generated by the feedback coil Hcoil are given by
I = Vin G∕R,
G = 1 + (50 kΩ∕RG ),
Hcoil = nI∕2(a2 + L2 )1∕2 ,
JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING  3
where n is the number of turns in the feedback coil. The
feedback coil can remove the geomagnetism (about 50 μT)
DC HCMMF when Vin is set to about 0.2 V with a variable
resistance. Furthermore, the AC HCMMF is also removed
because the output of the reference-type MI element is
applied to the feedback coil.
3.2. Effect of feedback coil
We have measured the magnetic noise spectral density of
the first-order- and CMMFR-type MI gradiometers in a
laboratory without a permalloy magnetic shielding box.
A comparison of the magnetic noise spectral densities of
the two MI gradiometers is shown in Figure 6. Since the
magnetic variation around the sensor head is reduced by
the effect of the feedback coil, the noise spectral density
of the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer is lower than that
of the first-order-type MI gradiometer. In particular, the
magnetic noise of the first-order-type MI gradiometer at
1 Hz is 259 × 10−12 T Hz−1/2, whereas that of the CMMFR-
type MI gradiometer is 44.4 × 10−12 T Hz−1/2. The noise
at 60 Hz related to the power source line is reduced by at
least 1/8, and the higher harmonics are also decreased
significantly.
Figure 7 shows the magnetic noise rejection ratio of
the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer. The magnetic noise
rejection ratio MR is calculated as
MR ≡ 20log(ΔBCMMFR ∕ΔBf ), (5)
where ΔBCMMFR and ΔBf are the environmental magnetic
noise spectral densities of the CMMFR- and first-order-
type MI gradiometers, respectively. The CMMFR-type
MI gradiometer can reduce the magnetic noise at 60 Hz
(2)
to less than −18 dB. For high-frequency magnetic noise
of 400 Hz, the MR reaches −40 dB. Furthermore, the
(3)
feedback coil has an inhibitory effect against low-fre-
quency common-mode magnetic fields like geomagne-
(4) tism because the magnetic noise rejection ratio at 1 Hz is
4  T. TAKIYA AND T. UCHIYAMA
Figure 6. Comparison of the environmental magnetic noise
spectral density of the general- and CMMFR-type MI gradiometers.
Figure 7. Magnetic noise rejection ratio of the CMMFR-type MI
gradiometer.
−15 dB. These measured values are lower than the −45 dB
[10] shield performance of a permalloy magnetic shielding
box. However, in non-destructive inspection applications,
we expect that utilizing the CMMFR-type MI gradiom-
eter will be an effective method because the installation
costs of a magnetic shielding room increase if the room
is perfectly shielded with permalloy.
We have examined the noise inhibitory effect of the
feedback coil against the AC HCMMF. The magnetic noise
spectral density of each MI gradiometer was measured
with an FFT analyser (CF-9200, Ono Sokki) when an AC
HCMMF of 0.5 μT (amplitude) at 10 Hz was applied to the
sensor head with the Helmholtz coil. The amplitude of
the AC HCMMF was measured with a commercial flux-gate
magnetometer (Fluxmaster, Stefan Mayer Instruments).
The MI gradiometers were set with a cut-off frequency of
30 Hz using a dual channel programmable filter (3625,
NF Corporation), and the noise at 60 Hz was reduced to
46 × 10−12 T Hz−1/2.
A comparison of the magnetic noise spectral densities
of the first-order- and CMMFR-type MI gradiometers is
shown in Figure 8(a). The AC HCMMF noise spectral den-
sities at 10 Hz are 642 × 10−10 T Hz−1/2 and 3.28 × 10−10 T
Hz−1/2 for the first-order- and CMMFR-type MI gradiome-
ters, respectively. Moreover, the second and third harmon-
ics are absent in the spectral density of the CMMFR-type
MI gradiometer. Figure 8(b) shows the output voltage Eout
of each MI gradiometer. The difference in the DC mag-
netic sensitivities of each MI element is about 3%, but the
amplitude of the first-order-type MI gradiometer output is
around 3 V because the differential amplifier gain is 1167.
In comparison, the output voltage of the CMMFR-type
MI gradiometer is 0.08 V, and the AC HCMMF at 10 Hz is
reduced to at least 1/37 of that of the first-order-type MI
gradiometer.
We placed each MI gradiometer and a one-turn coil
(diameter: 60 mm) in the Helmholtz coil and attempted
to detect a microscopic magnetic signal in the AC
HCMMF. We generated the microscopic magnetic signal
with the one-turn coil at the same time we generated
the AC HCMMF of 70 nT (amplitude) at 20 Hz with the
Helmholtz coil. According to the Biot–Savart law, the
amplitude of the microscopic magnetic signal detected
by the sensing-type MI element will be 5 nT when the
distance between the sensor head and the one-turn coil
is 5 mm. We measured the amplitude of the AC HCMMF
generated by the Helmholtz coil with a commercial flux-
gate magnetometer.
The result of the microscopic magnetic signal meas-
urement in the AC HCMMF with the MI gradiometers is
shown in Figure 9. Figure 9(a) presents the magnetic
field spectral density measured by the FFT analyser. In
the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer, the AC HCMMF at 20 Hz
is 9.24 × 10−11 T Hz−1/2 compared to 475 × 10−11 T Hz−1/2
in the first-order-type MI gradiometer. At the 3 Hz of the
target signal, the spectral density is 2.52 × 10−9 T Hz−1/2
in the first-order-type MI gradiometer and 2.44 × 10−9 T
Hz−1/2 in the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer. Since the sen-
sor head has a baseline of 30 mm between the sensing- and
reference-type MI elements, the microscopic target signal
detected by the reference-type MI element will be reduced
to 1.44 nT according to the Biot–Savart law. Therefore,
the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer can reduce only the
AC HCMMF because the target signal which is fed back to
the sensor head is less than 1/3 of 5 nT. The first-order-
type MI gradiometer outputs 3.56 nT according to Eq.
(1). We consider that the output of the CMMFR-type MI
gradiometer is about 2.12 nT because Bref (1.44 nT) is fed
back negatively to the sensor head. Figure 9(b) shows the
output voltage Eout of the MI gradiometers. The target sig-
nal at 3 Hz is superimposed on to the AC HCMMF at 20 Hz
in the output of the first-order-type MI gradiometer, but
the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer outputs only the target
signal with an amplitude of 64 mV. The ΔB detected with
the CMMFR-type MI gradiometer is 1.45 nT [equal to Eout
divided by the magnetic sensitivity (44 × 106 V T−1) of the
 JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING  5
Figure 8. Comparison of the AC common-mode magnetic fields
that each MI sensor outputs. (a) Magnetic noise spectral density.
(b) Output voltage Eout of the MI gradiometers.
sensing-type MI element], and this is close to the theoret-
ical value of 2.12 nT. Consequently, while the CMMFR-
type MI gradiometer can reduce only the common-mode
magnetic field, the sensor can detect a microscopic mag-
netic signal (5 nT) in a common-mode magnetic field (70
nT) that is 14 times larger than the target signal.
4. Conclusions
We have developed a CMMFR-type MI gradiometer and
confirmed that it is robust against external magnetic
noise.
The DC magnetic field detection of the MI gradiome-
ter was linear, and the difference in the magnetic sensitiv-
ity was about 3%. However, when the HCMMF was applied
to the sensor head, the first-order-type MI gradiometer
outputs the difference in the output of the sensing- and
reference-type MI elements as noise because the outputs
of both MI elements increased by a factor of 1167 with
the differential amplifiers. Hence, we removed the HCMMF
around the sensor head by feeding back the output of the
reference-type MI element with the feedback coil. In the
CMMFR-type MI gradiometer, the magnetic noise spec-
tral density over a range of 1–800 Hz decreased because
Figure 9. Microscopic magnetic signal measurement in the
AC HCMMF with the MI gradiometers. (a) Spectral density of the
microscopic magnetic signal (target signal) and the AC common-
mode magnetic field AC HCMMF. (b) Output voltage Eout of the MI
gradiometers.
the magnetic field gradient around the sensor head was
reduced by the effect of the feedback coil. In particular,
the noise at 60 Hz related to the power source line was
reduced by at least 1/8 (magnetic noise rejection ratio:
−18 dB) compared with the general-type MI gradiome-
ter. Additionally, we consider that the feedback coil has
an inhibitory effect against a low-frequency HCMMF like
geomagnetism because the magnetic noise rejection ratio
at 1 Hz is −15 dB. When the AC HCMMF of 0.5 μT at 10 Hz
was applied to the sensor head, the output AC HCMMF was
reduced to at least 1/37 of that of the first-order-type MI
gradiometer. In the measurement of a microscopic mag-
netic signal in the AC HCMMF, while the CMMFR-type
MI gradiometer could reduce only the common-mode
magnetic field, this sensor could detect the microscopic
magnetic signal (5 nT) in a common-mode magnetic
field (70 nT) that was 14 times larger than the target
signal.
The results in this paper indicate that the developed
CMMRF-type MI gradiometer could detect a target
­magnetic signal in a common-mode magnetic field like
environmental external magnetic noise. If the p ­ erformance
6  T. TAKIYA AND T. UCHIYAMA
and magnetic sensitivity of this sensor are improved, we
expect that the MI gradiometer will be able to easily detect
a picotesla-level microscopic magnetic s­ ignal such as bio-
magnetism without the need for a ­magnetic shielding room.
Acknowledgements
Part of this study was supported by the Yazaki Memorial Foun-
dation for Science and Technology.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Takashi Takiya is a doctor’s course student of
graduate school of engineering, Nagoya
University. He is a member of IEE Japan.
Tsuyoshi Uchiyama received his Doctor of
Engineering degree from Nagoya University,
Aichi, Japan, in 1988. He is an Associate
Professor of Nagoya University. He is a mem-
ber of IEE Japan.
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