Design of multi-dimensional magnetic position sensor systems based on HallinOne® technology

Systems for measurement of relative displacements or rotations in a single dimension by means of Hall sensors are state of the art. Fraunhofer HallinOne® Technology delivers 3D Hall sensors which can measure the complete spatial magnetic field vector as well as its change in all spatial directions at once. This allows in principle the design of position sensor systems which can detect all six degrees of freedom (positions and angles) of any device with a single magnet and a single magnetic field sensor. Unfortunately, complexity of the design increases significantly with the number of DOF in question. In this paper, after giving an overview on Fraunhofer IIS' HallinOne® technology, we present a software environment for the design of 3D magnetic position sensor systems, which supports the design process from feasibility studies unto preliminary testing of virtual prototypes. An application in the automotive domain is shown as an example.