Micromachined magnetoflexoelastic resonator based magnetometer

In this paper, we demonstrate the performance of a magnetoflexoelastic magnetometer consisting of a micromachined ultra-thin (7.5 μm) quartz bulk acoustic resonator on which 500 nm thick magnetostrictive Metglas^® (Fe₈₅B₅Si₁₀) film is deposited. The resonance frequency of the unimorph resonator structure is sensitively affected by the magnetostrictively induced flexoelastic effect in quartz and is exploited to detect low frequency (<100 Hz) and nanoTesla magnetic fields. The resonance frequency shift is measured by tracking the at-resonance admittance of the resonator as a function of the applied magnetic field. The frequency shifts are linearly correlated to the magnetic field strength. A minimum detectable magnetic flux density of ∼79 nT has been measured for 10 Hz modulated magnetic field input signals which corresponds to a frequency sensitivity of 0.883 Hz/μT.