Geomagnetic sensor offers accurate absolute orientation

Established on PNI Sensor's magneto-inductive technology, the sensors provide high performance resolution and repeatability with extremely low noise, high gain and high sampling rates, and no hysteresis. There is no need for temperature calibration or current 'set and reset' pulses between measurements. It provides over 23 times better resolution and 27 times less noise than commonly used Hall Effect magnetic sensors, critical attributes for accurate absolute orientation in a wide variety of applications.

In order to provide absolute reference and heading, geomagnetic sensors are used to measure the Earth's magnetic field. Changing magnetic fields, such as metal parts in furniture, a passing car, or nearby mobile phones and computers, can temporarily distort the heading information. The geomagnetic sensor needs to precisely distinguish between sensor noise and real changes in magnetic field to compensate for these and other transient magnetic anomalies.

“The RM3100 delivers more than 20x higher performance than existing MEMS or Hall Effect sensors. Its improved performance is due to a new and improved ASIC, the MagI2C and offers both SPI and I2C interfaces for easy integration in a wide variety of systems. It is not surprising that this patented technology has been proven across a wide spectrum of applications, including motion tracking, compassing, game, TV and set top box controllers and magnetic field measurement. This Geomagnetic Sensor Suite introduces a level of precision and performance for consumer applications, that was previously only available for advanced industrial applications such as advanced robotics, SONAR targeting, and oceanographic and terrestrial mapping,” comments Martin Pearce, Marketing Director, Willow Technologies.