Integration of GMR Sensors with Different Technologies
1
Department of Electronic Engineering, Universitat de València, Av. Universitat s/n, Burjassot 46100 , Spain
2
Department of Electronic Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, C. Jordi Girona, 1-3, Barcelona 08034, Spain
3
Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and Economics, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila 67100, Italy
4
INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias, Rua Alves Redol 9, Lisbon 1000-029, Portugal
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Academic Editor: Vittorio M. N. Passaro
Sensors 2016, 16(6), 939; https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060939
Received: 8 April 2016
/
Revised: 6 June 2016
/
Accepted: 16 June 2016
/
Published: 22 June 2016
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Giant Magnetoresistive Sensors)
Less than thirty years after the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect was described, GMR sensors are the preferred choice in many applications demanding the measurement of low magnetic fields in small volumes. This rapid deployment from theoretical basis to market and state-of-the-art applications can be explained by the combination of excellent inherent properties with the feasibility of fabrication, allowing the real integration with many other standard technologies. In this paper, we present a review focusing on how this capability of integration has allowed the improvement of the inherent capabilities and, therefore, the range of application of GMR sensors. After briefly describing the phenomenological basis, we deal on the benefits of low temperature deposition techniques regarding the integration of GMR sensors with flexible (plastic) substrates and pre-processed CMOS chips. In this way, the limit of detection can be improved by means of bettering the sensitivity or reducing the noise. We also report on novel fields of application of GMR sensors by the recapitulation of a number of cases of success of their integration with different heterogeneous complementary elements. We finally describe three fully functional systems, two of them in the bio-technology world, as the proof of how the integrability has been instrumental in the meteoric development of GMR sensors and their applications.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
GMR; integration; technology
▼
Show Figures
Figure 1
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Cubells-Beltrán, M.-D.; Reig, C.; Madrenas, J.; De Marcellis, A.; Santos, J.; Cardoso, S.; Freitas, P.P. Integration of GMR Sensors with Different Technologies. Sensors 2016, 16, 939. https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060939
AMA Style
Cubells-Beltrán M-D, Reig C, Madrenas J, De Marcellis A, Santos J, Cardoso S, Freitas PP. Integration of GMR Sensors with Different Technologies. Sensors. 2016; 16(6):939. https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060939
Chicago/Turabian StyleCubells-Beltrán, María-Dolores, Càndid Reig, Jordi Madrenas, Andrea De Marcellis, Joana Santos, Susana Cardoso, and Paulo P. Freitas. 2016. "Integration of GMR Sensors with Different Technologies" Sensors 16, no. 6: 939. https://doi.org/10.3390/s16060939
Find Other Styles
Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.
