Tdk Corporation

Shunji Saruki

Hiraku Hirabayashi

Shinichirou Mochizuki

Hiroshi Kiyono

Nozomu Hachisuka

Kenji Inage

Masanori Sakai

Takeo Kagami

Kazuki Sato

Tetsuya Kuwashima

Takumi Uesugi

Yosuke Komasaki

Koji Shimazawa

Kazumasa Fukuda

Tsuyoshi Umehara

Kunihiro Ueda

Takayasu Kanaya

Katsumichi Tagami

Noriaki Kasahara

Yosuke Antoku

Takumi Yanagisawa

Hiroshi Naganuma

Kentaro Nagai

Masaru Hirose

Masahide Kohno

At a reference position within a first plane, a magnetic field to be detected has a first direction that changes within the first plane. A magnetic sensor includes an MR element. The MR element includes a magnetic layer having first magnetization that can change in direction within a second plane. The first plane and the second plane intersect at a dihedral angle α other than 90°. The magnetic field to be detected can be divided into an in-plane component parallel to the second plane and a perpendicular component perpendicular to the second plane. The in-plane component has a second direction that changes with a change in the first direction. The direction of the first magnetization changes with a change in the second direction. A detection value depends on the direction of the first magnetization.

Magnetic sensor and magnetic sensor system

A magnetic sensor system includes a magnetic sensor device and a signal processing circuit. The magnetic sensor device generates first to third detection signals corresponding to components in three directions a field generated by a magnetic field generator that is able to change its relative position with respect to the magnetic sensor device. The signal processing circuit includes first and second processors. The second processor generates sphere information and transmits it to the first processor. When coordinates representing a set of values of the first to third detection signals in an orthogonal coordinate system are taken as a measurement point, the sphere information includes data on center coordinates of a virtual sphere having a spherical surface approximating a distribution of a plurality of measurement points. The first processor detects a change in offsets of the first to third detection signals by using the sphere information transmitted from the second processor.

Position detection device, signal processing circuit, and magnetic sensor system

At a reference position within a first plane, a magnetic field to be detected has a first direction that changes within the first plane. A magnetic sensor includes an MR element. The MR element includes a magnetic layer having first magnetization that can change in direction within a second plane. The first plane and the second plane intersect at a dihedral angle &#x3b1; other than 90&#xb0;. The magnetic field to be detected can be divided into an in-plane component parallel to the second plane and a perpendicular component perpendicular to the second plane. The in-plane component has a second direction that changes with a change in the first direction. The direction of the first magnetization changes with a change in the second direction. A detection value depends on the direction of the first magnetization.

A magnetic sensor system includes two magnetic sensors that detect components in two directions of an external magnetic field, an additional magnetic field generation section, and a signal processing circuit. The additional magnetic field generation section is capable of generating two additional magnetic fields for use in measuring the sensitivities of the two magnetic sensors. The signal processing circuit includes a sensitivity measurement processing section and a detection signal correction processing section. The sensitivity measurement processing section measures the sensitivities based on data concerning changes in the detection signals of the two magnetic sensors when the additional magnetic field generation section is controlled to generate two additional magnetic fields. The detection signal correction processing section performs processing for reducing change components attributable to the two additional magnetic fields on the detection signals of the two magnetic sensors.

Magnetic sensor system

A signal processing circuit processes first to third detection signals output from a magnetic sensor device. The signal processing circuit includes a sphere information generation section that performs first processing and a determination section that performs second processing. With a set of values of the first to third detection signals at a certain timing taken as measurement data and with coordinates that represent the measurement data in an orthogonal coordinate system taken as a measurement point, the first processing includes determining center coordinates of a virtual sphere having a spherical surface approximating the distribution of a plurality of measurement data. The second processing includes determining whether four or more pieces of measurement data are suitable for use in the first processing.

Signal processing circuit, position detection device, and magnetic sensor system

A signal processing circuit includes a correction function determination section for performing correction function determination processing, and a correction processing section for performing correction processing. The correction processing is to correct first and second detection signals by using a correction function to thereby generate first and second corrected signals. The correction function is expressed as a coefficient matrix for converting a first column vector containing the first and second detection signals as elements into a second column vector containing the first and second corrected signals as elements. The correction function determination processing includes performing arithmetic processing using a plurality of pairs of values of the first and second detection signals to determine one or two provisional correction coefficients as the correction coefficients of the correction function.

Signal processing circuit and magnetic sensor system

A magnetic sensor system includes a magnetic device and a signal processing circuit. The device generates first to third detection signals corresponding to components in three directions of a magnetic field generated by a magnetic field generator that is able to change its relative position with respect to the device. The circuit includes a longest segment extraction section and a midpoint coordinate computing section. With coordinates that represent a set of values of the first to third detection signals at a certain timing in an orthogonal coordinate system being taken as a measurement point, the longest segment extraction section extracts a first point and a second point that define a line segment having the greatest length among a plurality of measurement points at a plurality of timings. The midpoint coordinate computing section determines coordinates of a midpoint of the line segment defined by the first and second points.

A first detection unit has first and second detection circuits. A second detection unit has third and fourth detection circuits. Output signals of the second and fourth detection circuits differ from output signals of the first and third detection circuits in phase, respectively, by an odd number of times &#xbc; the signal period. The output signal of the third detection circuit differs from the output signal of the first detection circuit in phase by an integer multiple of &#x2159; the signal period other than an integer multiple of &#xbd; the signal period. A rotating field sensor generates a first signal based on the output signals of the first and third detection circuits, generates a second signal based on the output signals of the second and fourth detection circuits, and calculates a detected angle value based on the first and second signals.

Rotating field sensor

A rotation angle sensor includes a magnet that rotates about a rotation axis. The magnet has an end face perpendicular to the rotation axis and has a magnetization in a direction perpendicular to the rotation axis. The rotation angle sensor further includes a magnetic sensor that faces the end face of the magnet and detects a magnetic field produced by the magnet. The magnet includes a plate-shaped portion including the end face, and a ring-shaped portion that is located on a side of the plate-shaped portion farther from the end face and coupled to the plate-shaped portion. The plate-shaped portion does not include any hollow through which the rotation axis passes, whereas the ring-shaped portion includes a hollow through which the rotation axis passes.

Rotation angle sensor

A rotating field sensor includes a first detection circuit that outputs a first signal indicating the intensity of a component of a rotating magnetic field in a first direction, a second detection circuit that outputs a second signal indicating the intensity of a component of the rotating magnetic field in a second direction, and an arithmetic circuit that calculates a detected angle value based on the first and second signals. Each of the first and second detection circuits includes at least one MR element row. Each MR element row is composed of a plurality of MR elements connected in series. Each MR element has a magnetization pinned layer. The plurality of MR elements forming each MR element row include one or more pairs of MR elements. Magnetization directions of the magnetization pinned layers in two MR elements making up a pair form a predetermined relative angle other than 0&#xb0; and 180&#xb0;.

The method according to the present invention includes the steps of: sequentially applying a plurality of different voltages to an MR element and sequentially detecting output signals from the MR element; and eliminating the MR element as a defective product when an evaluation value, based on a difference of SN ratios of the output signals from the MR element respectively obtained for each applied voltage, is less than a threshold value, and selecting the MR element as a non-defective product when the evaluation value is greater than or equal to the threshold value.

Method of manufacturing magnetoresistive element

A field generation unit generates a rotating magnetic field including a first partial magnetic field in a first position and a second partial magnetic field in a second position. The first and second partial magnetic fields differ in direction by 180&#xb0; and rotate in the same direction of rotation. A first detection unit detects, in the first position, a first angle that the direction of a first applied field forms with respect to a first direction. The first applied field includes the first partial magnetic field as its main component. A second detection unit detects, in the second position, a second angle that the direction of a second applied field forms with respect to a second direction. The second applied field includes the second partial magnetic field as its main component. A detected value of the angle that the direction of the rotating magnetic field in a reference position forms with respect to a reference direction is calculated based on detected values of the first and second angles.

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Tokyo, Japan

Shunji Saruki