Low-Power Three-Dimensional Graphene-Based Flexible Magnetic Sensor

TL;DR

A low-power, flexible 3D magnetic sensor based on graphene is developed for use in wearable devices and robotics.

Contribution

A novel 3D magneto-impedance sensor using a graphene-based heterostructure with low power consumption and high resolution.

Findings

The sensor consumes only 76 μW of power.

It achieves high resolutions of 31, 36, and 6992 nT/Hz1/2 in the X, Y, and Z directions.

The sensor is flexible and adapts well to mechanical deformation.

Abstract

Flexible magnetic sensors have become a hot research topic due to their non-contact human–machine interaction capabilities in areas such as motion recognition and posture detection of intelligent robots, virtual reality (VR) space reconstruction, and the Internet of Things. This study proposes a flexible, low-power three-dimensional (3D) magneto-impedance (MI) sensor based on a planar FeSiB/PI/graphene microcoil/PI/FeSiB heterostructure. Through the magneto-impedance effect of soft magnetic materials and the magnetoresistance effect of graphene under the synergistic modulation of weak current excitation, this sensor can decouple the magnetic field components in the X, Y, and Z directions with a single measurement, thus guaranteeing the real-time detection capability of a 3D magnetic field. Experimental results show that the proposed 3D magnetic sensor possesses the obvious advantages, such as the low power consumption of 76 μW, high resolutions of 31, 36, and 6992 nT/Hz1/2 in the X, Y, and Z directions, respectively. Additionally, the magnetic sensor exhibits excellent anti-bending performance and can adapt to complex mechanical deformation environments. These characteristics endow it with great application potential in the field of intelligent wearable devices and provide new ideas for the future flexible electronics technology.

Figures